The Last True Crime
by Angelos D. Wolf
Summary: After revealing he has faked amnesia, Sly leaves Carmelita to finish one last mission in hopes that it will protect her so they can finally be together. The last thing he must do. The last loose end he needs to tie up. The Last True Crime.
1. A Box of Tissues

**The Last True Crime**

A Sly Cooper fan fiction by Tex-Hempioro

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Disclaimer: Sly Cooper, Carmelita Montoya Fox, Bentley, Murray, and other characters, settings, and events concerning all three games are owned by the Sucker Punch Company. Any future original characters and plot line belong to me.

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This fan fiction is dedicated to you, the readers, as well as all Sly Cooper fans. I hope you enjoy reading the first chapter and future chapters to this story.

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**Chapter 1: A Box of Tissues**

** T**he glowing face of the white moon in the dark sky cast its silver rays into the apartment building near downtown Paris. At this hour, the street lamps had been doused to give those who wished for sleep to have it undisturbed. A tall shadowy form crept closer to the open window and was preparing to leap down to street level; in his right paw he clutched a long slender pole that bore a curved tip. From the brim of his blue cap, he took another long look at the curvaceous form under the sheets behind him. The slumbering female had her back turned to him in the bed, unaware that she had noticed he had gotten up.

As the shady form lifted his foot to step onto the window sill, his sharp ears twitched to a sound of a mechanical clicking noise. "Don't you dare move," the feminine voice behind him spoke. "Step away slowly and turn around." The form stepped into the moonlight; his gleaming brown eyes were the first to be revealed.

"Carmelita, I've been rubbing off on you. I didn't even hear you get out of bed." He sat down the cane to lean against the wall and placed his gloved paws up in a defensive manner. The red fox tightened her grip on the bright red pistol that the raccoon was all too familiar with.

"I knew it," she spoke, hurt clear in her voice. "I knew it was too good to be true. Here I thought my dream became reality, I had you off the streets causing grief all over the world for me to play catch up. I had you join Interpol, I had you become a model citizen, god dammit you were a law abiding cop!"

"Carmelita, please-

"Don't you dare 'Carmelita' me; you have stepped across a fine line, ringtail!" Sly didn't respond he had no right to argue with her. She took a deep breath and placed both paws to steady the pistol she gripped. "You toyed with my emotions again by tricking me with your damned romantic ways, and like the idiot I was I believed nearly every word of it." She turned her head away, unable to look square into those damned brown eyes of his.

She had gotten lost in those eyes before, ever since they shared their first true kiss on that balcony in the star light. Now here he was, standing before her, his usual happy go lucky smirk lost in his expression and instead replaced by a look of complete guilt and shame. For the longest moment he stood there, silent as the wind that blew through the open window behind him. He drew a deep breath and cleared his throat. "Carmelita, you need to understand, I lied to you so that we could be close. I know it was wrong to hide all this from you, but if I told you I would give up my life as a thief it would just be another lie. Your whole family generation after generation was an enforcer of the law as mine were thieves."

He pulled off his cap and placed it over his heart as he took a few steps closer to Carmelita. She placed her pistol in between them and pushed the barrel against his chest. "You said you loved me once" she whispered in her alluring Latin accent. "You said the very words to my face. I saw no false meaning in your eyes, and yet here you are, wearing those cloths...holding that cane."

"Carmelita, I promised you," he brought his paws into hers and placed the shock pistol on the nightstand. "I promised you that I wanted us to be together. I never have broken a promise before in my life, and I'm not going to start now by breaking it to the woman I love. I have to do this; I have to see that the work I started would be finished...so that you can be safe. But remember something, remember my promise to you and that my heart will always belong to you."

She slid her paws out of his and turned away. Carmelita wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered, though it wasn't from the cold night air. "You have no heart." Her look could melt steel. She turned away, only to be turned around again as Sly wrapped his paw around her wrist and brought her palm to his chest, feeling the thumping of his heart beat.

"I do have a heart, Carmelita, and it only beats for you."

"Just go, I'm sure I'll see you again soon enough. Remember this ringtail, until you're caught, I'll always make sure the safety's off." He leaned close to plant one last kiss on her cheek. Thinking it would be the last honest kiss she would receive, the red fox turned her head so that his lips landed on her own. Despite it all, she enjoyed it, and it made her sick to her stomach and weak in the knees.

She tore away from him and avoided his eyes again. She motioned to the open window with a jerk of her head, her dark blue hair swaying as she did so. Sly replaced the cap squarely on his head, covering the spiky tufts of grey hair above his brow and grabbing his cane. He jumped up onto the window sill and glanced behind him one last time. "It only beats for you, Carmelita Montoya Fox."

"Just go..."

He nodded his head and whispered "As you wish" before he leapt out the window, landing on the tiled roof of a building and sliding down the slope. At the edge of the roof, he kicked off and soared through the air, twirling in midair and landing on the top of a lamp post with the tips of his toes. Carmelita watched through the window at the raccoon's acrobatic display before he sprinted down the street and out of sight.

"You'll always prefer that cane of yours before me won't you, criminal?" She stepped away from the window and closed it shut. Placing her shock pistol into the holster insider her brown jacket that hung on the hook by her front door, she walked into the bathroom and grabbed the half full box of tissues and sat back down on the bed. The fox pulled out the thin piece of paper and dabbed around her eyes as she sniffed and continued to look through the transparent body of the window. She didn't know how long she sat there; she didn't bother to glance at the clock by her bed and continued to pull out more tissues until the box was hollowed out.

After tossing the last crumpled up piece of flimsy cloth, she lay back down and rested her head against the pillow. She shivered as she pulled the sheets over her body, realizing she wouldn't have a warm body to snuggle up against this night. Her light flow of tears caused her eyelids to grow heavy and sleep came a little easier for her.

As she slept, the dark, shadowed pathways of the street were easily navigated by the quiet, agile raccoon that stormed down the sidewalk and climbed up onto a random roof of a small home via another light pole. He sprinted across the tiled surface and leapt through the air and somersaulted onto another flat roof. Sly jumped up to the chimney and sprang up to grab the ledge of a taller building where he finally ceased his sprinting and leaned up against a viscous stone gargoyle. His chest heaved as the grey animal sucked air into his lungs and wiped the perspiration from his brow. Sly brought a paw to his face as he felt a stream of tears escape from his eyes.

He looked down from his seat high above the assortment of cars flying back and forth on the black strip of asphalt that was streaked by double yellow lines. He glanced down at the direction he ran from to look at the apartment complex with its window ajar. His ears fell flat as he watched the shadowed form of a woman walked back into her room and close the window. "I'm sorry," he whispered with the blowing wind. "But I can't let this go unfinished."

He felt a soft vibration in the red holster strapped to his left leg and unbuckled the flap to it. The raccoon reached inside and placed the buzzing blue binoc-u-com to his eyes. A small visual screen came to life and the green face of Bentley appeared, his blue helmet strapped to his head. "Do you read me, Sly? I'm getting some static, are you responding from a high area again?"

"Yeah, Bentley, I hear you loud and clear." Sly's usual optimistic sounding voice seemed hollow and empty to the turtle.

"How'd she take it?" he asked, covering his mouth to stifle a yawn.

"I'm not sure," the raccoon shook his head. "I've seen her upset before, but this is different." He paused for a moment and then tired to change the subject. "So, do we have a plan, pal?"

"Yes, I've talked it over with Murray on his cell phone. He's on a plane headed for our location. We'll pick him up tomorrow morning at the airport and get down to business."

"And what about Penelope, is she up to speed on the details?"

"Affirmative, I'll send my RC chopper to deliver our current location to you. No need to worry about transportation for the objective, Murray already took care of it." Sly couldn't help but brighten up and chuckle at his friend's obsession with the Cooper gang's van. Bentley lurched forward from a loud sneeze and readjusted his glasses. The raccoon's ear twitched as he heard the flapping of small rotating propellers.

The miniature red RC helicopter hovered above Sly as he reached out and snatched the little piece of paper, reading the dark blue ink that was etched on its surface. He placed his binoc-u-com back to his eyes and spoke into it. "I've got it; I'll head over there now."

"See you in a bit, pal. Glad to have the gang back together again."

"Yeah...I am too, buddy." He replaced the blue binoculars in the red holster on his thigh and stepped to the edge of his perch. Leaning forward on the tips of his toes, he spread his arms away from his body and leaned forward to free fall from the tall building he sat upon. Feeling the wind rush against his body as he fell, he reached out with his cane and hooked onto a cloths line. He pulled down on the line and flung himself several feet into the air, clutching a flag pole and watched as the red white and blue segments of the French flag flapped in the wind.

He took one last glance below and blew a kiss to a distant apartment complex. "Until we meet again my love," he whispered under the noise of the flapping fabric of the flag. "I promise to come back to you." And with that, he held the cane in his mouth as he slid down the pole and stuck to the shadows, steadily moving towards his destination.

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_Author's note: How'd I do? Did you like it? Give me your opinions please, I want to hear them. Though I haven't a clue what will happen throughout the story, I will try my hardest to develop a good plot that will entertain you and want you to continue reading. That is my goal, to entertain you and develop something that you will enjoy to read. R&R, give me your opinions, I'm all ears._


	2. Those Damn Eyes of His

**Chapter 2**

**Those Damn Eyes of His**

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**I**nspector Carmelita Montoya Fox sat reclined in her office chair. Clutched in her right paw was a steaming cup filled with a chocolate colored liquid. The red fox brought the cup of coffee to her lips and let the warm moisture slide down her throat as she placed the small cup back onto an equally tiny plate she held in her left paw. Her ear twitched reflexively as the glass of the cup clinked against the small plate. She stared out the window of her office, the blinds pulled back to let the afternoon sun shine its rays into the small room.

Her mind wandered, it had been almost a month since she had last seen him. The raccoon had found common place within her thoughts as she pondered what his whereabouts were. Nothing had come up involving Sly since the night he left. "Staying under the radar, ringtail?" she spoke to herself in a hushed tone. "Wise choice, because I'll do a lot more then throw you in a cell when I get my paws on you."

A soft tap on her door caused her to swivel around in her rotating wooden chair as she stood up and turned the golden knob. An ocelot, his face covered in yellow fur and dark black spots lightly smiled politely to Inspector Fox. "Hey, partner," he spoke, the tone of his voice sounded rather serious despite his carefree expression. "You busy?" Carmelita shook her head and allowed the feline to step into her office.

Constable Dorian Booker, Miss Fox's newest and most promising partner hung up his coat on the tall pole near the door and took a seat across from Carmelita who sat behind her desk in the rotating wooden chair. Booker had only just been assigned to the Paris department of Interpol after his flight from his hometown of Stockholm Sweden, but his files from the academy he graduated in showed rather impressive marks. Naturally he was partnered with one of the more successful officers in the station; Dorian had quickly formed a friendly bond with his partner. "So," he continued. "Chief has asked us to investigate a robbery that took place late last night, or is it early this morning?"

"Robbery?" Carmelita quickly sprang up at the word, provoking her partner to slightly jump in his seat himself.

"Uh, yeah, there was a robbery at about three in the morning, ah so it was early this morning. Anyway, a hardware store was ripped off during the night, cleaned the place completely out. Quite the professional this crook, disabled all the alarms and left no prints on anything." Inspector Fox wasted no time as she grabbed her brown jacket from the coat rack and checked her shock pistol, flipping the safety switch off. Booker hesitated for a moment, perplexed by his partner's eagerness but simply shrugged his shoulders and pulled on his brown coat.

Jumping into a cruiser, Carmelita gripped the steering wheel and plunged the keys into the ignition. "Can I drive this time?" Booker asked as he opened the car door in a pleading voice.

"Maybe next time." She glanced from the corner of her eye as the car sparked to life with the roar of the engine.

"Ah, you always say that."

"It isn't like you never get any practice when you drive that loud muscle car of yours." Dorian laughed heartily as they pulled out of the parking garage and out onto the streets.

"Can you blame me? I don't care much for their food, but I've to give them credit, Americans sure do know how to make a car." The police scanner had finally stopped belching out static, leaving Booker to continue to speak unhindered. "I mean that Mustang is quite a beautiful piece of machinery. It's intoxicating when you drive it, I just can't help myself."

"You sound like a coke addict," the red fox stated bluntly, "I know it's hard for you but try and focus on the situation."

"You got it, boss ma'am." His focus soon dwindled and he began talking about his car again. The bright red, fifth generation Ford Mustang seemed to always be on his mind. If it wasn't about the body type, it was about the engine, if it wasn't about the engine, it was about the acceleration. Carmelita wasn't listening however, she was miles away.

_Were you just using me, Cooper,_ she thought to herself. _Was I just a ticket into Interpol so you could learn about your enemy from the inside out?_

"Uh, partner?" Miss Fox shook her head and came back into reality as Dorian tapped a finger on her shoulder.

"What, what is it?"

"You missed our turn." Carmelita glanced behind her and bit her lip to stifle a curse. Taking the next left to circle around, she attempted to stay focused on the road and not on Sly. It was proving difficult. "You ok, Carmelita, you seem distracted?" She moved her eyes to the right to glance at the ocelot and pressed her lips together.

"Just fine, Booker. This is it?" The cruiser came to a stop in front of a large hardware and supply store. Aside from the entire inside being empty, nothing seemed out of place here.

"Yep, this is it. Like I said, they didn't leave anything." The first thing Carmelita skimmed through was the cash register. Her chocolate eyes widened as she saw that it was still full of euros. What sort of robber would leave the money? _One that wasn't looking for money,_ she confirmed to herself.

Clicking on a flashlight, Booker walked farther down one of the many empty alleyways composed of shelves. They were picked dry, sheet metal, power tools, nuts, bolts, wires, pipes, everything was gone. With the lights all broken, the empty store seemed to feel abandoned and somewhat haunted. The constant silence was rather disturbing. Booker was very put on edge, he had seen enough of those Hollywood horror movies to know that when it gets quiet, something would always jump out or something unfortunate would happen.

He ran a finger on the shelf and collected a small pile of grey dust on the padded underside of his furry digit. "Booker!" The ocelot quickly jumped and spun around; nearly unloading his entire clip of shock rounds in the direction he heard the shout.

"Dammit, Carmelita, don't do that!" He holstered his pistol and walked back out of the shelf ways to where the red fox was standing. Clutched in Carmelita's right paw was a piece of paper, its edges torn and raw as if it was crudely ripped from a larger piece. Dorian inched closer and looked over his partner's to see what she held. On the front of the parchment was a roughly scribbled object that appeared to be the outline of some sort of bird with wide spread wings.

The clawed talons were fully extended and ready to grasp the prey it swooped towards. Along with the cash register that was untouched, this picture seemed to only raise more questions. There was a few granite smudges from someone's finger tips but Carmelita saw no finger prints. _They must have been wearing gloves_, she thought to herself as she shoved to parchment into her pocket. She turned to Booker and hooked a thumb towards the police cruiser.

"We're out of here, Booker. There isn't anything else here to see. We'll tell Chief what we found here today."

"You got it partner." Dorian took one last glance at the hardware store before closing the glass door and climbed into the passenger seat of the vehicle. "Any chance I can drive back to the station?" He spoke, already anticipating the usual response.

"Maybe next time..." Booker hung his head in defeat as he snapped on his safety belt.

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The fresh breeze felt good. It quickly dried the beading sweat and cooled off the body in an instant, the kind of wind that goes greatly appreciated. The raccoon stood on the tip of a flag pole on the tips of his blue boots as the wind blew against his body, causing his blue sweater and grey pants to flutter along with the red white and blue French flag. Sly pulled off his cap and fanned his face to cool off; he was in direct sunlight with absolutely no shade at this height. A buzzing noise emitted from the red holster strapped to his thigh and he pulled out his binoc-u-com, squinting from the sun's glare as he brought it to his eyes.

The green face of Bentley appeared on the screen to his left as he straitened his glasses. "Alright, Sly," he spoke in his usual nasally sounding voice. "You remember what the plan is correct?"

"C'mon, Bentley, look who you're talking to here."

"Right, anyway, Murray should be at the meeting area now. Locate him and we can get started."

"Got it, pal. Let's just hope this turns out better then our last few assignments over the years."

"No doubt, fortunately we won't have to deal with the Klaww gang or Clockwerk this time around."

"Yeah...I sure hope so," He trailed off as he panned his gaze in search for his large pink hippo teammate. "Meet you back at the safe house in a bit." He replaced his binoculars into his holster and jumped off the flag pole, landing squarely on his feet without incident. He quickly met up with Murray who stood by a door to a large, cube shaped building that was nearly covered in graffiti.

"Hey little buddy, I think Bentley said the thing we need is in the safe on the top floor."

"It always is, isn't it?"

"Yeah, a bunch of guards are in there too."

"Again, it always is. You'd think they would try something new every once in awhile?"

"Maybe, anyway, I'm right behind ya buddy. The Murray will crack any skull and bruise any face that comes near us."

"Good to hear, let's hit it shall we?" Sly effortlessly picked the lock and slowly pushed the door ajar. Creeping inside he quickly spotted two guards around the corner of the support beam in the middle of the room. The raccoon knelt low to the ground and tip toed towards one of the rear facing guards.

"Alright numbskulls, who wants a piece of The Murray!?" The two guards swung around, causing Sly to spring back and sprint out of the way of the charging rats that totted large clubs. Murray quickly charged and slammed his round belly into one of the rats, sending him into the wall and dislodging the bright red beret from his head. Sly brought the hook of his cane around the other rat's neck and swung him in a circle until flinging him into the air and smacking him as he fell to his cane's level.

"Not bad, Murray, not very subtle, but it got the job done." Sly glanced towards the door and inspected the unconscious rats sprawled on the floor.

"Yeah, now to get this door open, do not worry, I will destroy this barrier that stands before us, behold!" Before Murray could punch the wooden door and reduce it to splinters, Sly had slipped in a key and opened the door himself. The pink hippo slowly lowered his gloved fists and rubbed his head. "Uh...right, all in a days work!" Sly simply shook his head with a grin and they both entered the next room.

"Leave this one to me, Murray. We can't risk these clowns radioing in for help."

"Got it, buddy." Murray saluted his friend and hid behind the unkempt bookshelf near the door. Sly crept near the middle of the group of four guards in the middle of the room and pulled off his cap. _Hope this works the first time, Bentley,_ he tossed his blue cap into the middle of the group and slammed the tip of his cane on the floor. A click sounded off and the cap exploded into a bright flash of light, blinding all the eyes in the room excluding Sly and Murray.

Taking the liberty of picking all the guard's pockets dry, the raccoon then jumped up and brought his cane down on the large, burley wild boar's collective heads. Sly smoothed out the wrinkles on his sweater and gestured for Murray to come out of hiding. "Nice job, Sly. Bentley sure did know what he was thinking when he made that new hat trick of yours." The raccoon knelt down to pick his hat off the floor and flipped it into the air and land squarely on his head.

"Stylish, and useful, thanks Bentley," Sly twirled his cane in his gloved paw and walked towards the door. "Now if only it could get this door open, none of these goons had a key on them and I can't pick these new digital locks."

"Leave it to me." Murray pulled back his red gloved fists and crashed into the door, sending it off its hinges and flying forward until it slammed against the unfortunate thug on the other side.

"Qu'est-ce que c'est?" The rat spoke right before Murray brought his fist to the rodent's face. The hippo rubbed his hands together and held them up in front of his face and began hopping around like a boxer fired up for a match.

"You want a piece of me, bucktooth?" Murray, who wasn't too fluent in the French language, simply cocked an eyebrow and wound up his fists as the rat guards cursed at them in French. "Ready, little buddy?" Sly came up to stand beside the large hippo and balanced on the tips of his toes as he slightly bounced up and down in his stance.

"Right behind you, pal."

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"It's very confusing," Chief Barkley rubbed his head as he looked at the small piece of paper that sat on his desk. "Our computer wiz is looking up all the organized crime and gang symbols in Europe that we have on file. I'm afraid I've never seen this specific type of calling card." He looked up from the polished wood of his desk at the two officers that stood in front of him. "Inspector Fox, was there anything else at the crime scene?"

"Just that the cash register was completely untouched, other then that it looked like an average robbery."

"Whoever pulled this off was very skilled," Booker began speaking when Carmelita finished her sentence. "No prints, no suspects, the alarms were disabled and the only glimpse on the video footage we got from the cameras didn't give us too much to work with right before they were cut off." Carmelita placed her paws on Barkley's desk and leaned forward to add a bit more seriousness to her statement.

"Chief, with your permission, I'd like to further investigate this matter." Barkley took this into consideration and quickly glimpsed up to see Dorian making faces at the large black and white portrait of Chief Barkley's grandfather. The ocelot inhaled a breath of air and puffed out his cheeks to imitate the plump face of the Chief's ancestor and placed a paw to his forehead to mimic the portrayed police captain's salute.

"Booker, knock that off. Inspector Fox, you have my permission to look further into this, but I doubt you'll find much considering we have no leads except this strange symbol. But if anyone can- Booker I told you to knock that off- if anyone can figure this out, I'm sure it would be you." Dorian quickly stopped his joking and folded his paws behind his back. He pulled on his red tie to tighten the slack against his neck and smoothed the wrinkles out of his coat sleeves while Carmelita continued.

"Thank you, sir, I'll do my best."

"Oh and Inspector Fox," Carmelita turned around right before she placed her paw on the door knob to leave Barkley's office.

"Yes, Chief?"

"Since we're on the subject of criminals and calling cards, have to recently been in contact with Sly Cooper?" The red fox looked down at the carpeted floor and whispered under her breath.

"No, no I haven't, sir. C'mon Booker, we have paperwork to fill out." Dorian was less then thrilled to hear this news as he accompanied his partner out of the office. The ocelot took notice to Carmelita's sudden change in mood at the mention of Sly Cooper so he placed a paw on her shoulder.

"You gonna be ok, partner?" The fox glanced at the yellow and black dotted paw that was placed on her shoulder and sighed as she shrugged it off.

"I'll be fine, Dorian."

"Anything you wanna talk about?" Booker had already been informed of the situation regarding the raccoon as he was his replacement. As he developed his friendship with the fox, the more he began to detest this raccoon that toyed with his partner's heart. Carmelita gave a mute response by simply opening the door to her office and quickly breaking out the paperwork stored in her desk. Dorian took a seat with one of the guest chairs that sat in the room and looked out the window to see the sun steadily sinking into the horizon, painting the sky a brilliant mix of orange and purple and red.

After a few minutes of silence, the ocelot stood up and hung his coat on the hanger by the door. "I'm gonna go get some coffee," he spoke as he reached for the golden door knob. "You need anything, boss ma'am?" She quirked an eyebrow at her nickname Booker had given her. Since their first day together as partners he had referred to her as "boss ma'am" every now and then. He was quite the odd one but Carmelita didn't seem to mind, his company was much more enjoyable then any of her other male co-workers.

"Yeah, could you get me a cup?"

"You got it, how do you take it?"

"Black is fine." The ocelot made a face at the notion of having coffee without any cream or sugar, but he bowed down in a mock manor of how a servant would bow before his master and walked out of the office. Carmelita flipped through a few more pages before finally setting the files down and slowly opening a drawer in her desk. There, sitting on top of a few scattered papers and an assortment of thumbtacks was a folded paper in the shape of the infamous Sly Cooper calling card. The blue raccoon head with the glaring white eyes seemed to look up at her as she plucked it from the drawer.

It was the very same card she found sitting in the open safe that held his files some three years ago (The beginning of Sly Cooper). She had always kept this one even though she seen many before it. This one however held a more sentiment value to her, every time she stared at the blue face, she felt as if she were staring into those chocolate pools of his eyes. "Those beautiful eyes," she spoke aloud. "Those damn eyes of his."

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The soft click of the tumblers falling into the unlock position in the safe ringed in his grey pointed ears. Sly grinned as he often did and turned the handle to pull open the dark blue safe. "Did you get it, Sly," Murray jumped up and down in anticipation behind Cooper. "Is it in there?" Sly reached into the safe and clutched a rolled up blue sheet of grid paper in his paw.

"We sure got it, pal. Nice work couldn't have done it without you."

"No obstacle can stand in the way of The Murray and his unstoppable might." The hippo quickly made a dramatic and heroic pose. Sly simply stood there and watched in puzzlement at his friend until Murray dropped his arms and scratched the back of his head. "Uh, yeah...see ya back at the hide out." The raccoon watched his pink friend leave and pulled out a calling card from under his sleeve.

Placing the blue paper in the shape of a raccoon head into the safe, he shoved the blue scroll into his holster and sprinted out the door. His red holster buzzed to life and Sly pulled out his binoc-u-com, placing it to his face. "Murray just told me, great work, Sly. This should get us a few steps ahead of the enemy. See you back at the hideout."

"Right, see you there, pal." Sly placed the blue binoc-u-com back into his holster and glanced down at his watch. It was almost seven, Carmelita hasn't left work yet. He quickly ran out the door and into the cold early night air. He climbed up onto a drain pipe that ran down the side of the building and stood atop the roof.

Sprinting down the length of the roof, he leaped across the gap and rolled onto the next roof. He was a man on a mission, one that simply could not wait for him to stop by the safe house and drop off his precious cargo. Another leap and bound across a few more city blocks finally landed him at his destination. Sitting across from his spot on the roof of a surplus store was the open window of a certain inspector's office. Pulling out his binoc-u-com, he zoomed into the room and watched as an ocelot departed from her office with a grin on his face.

But his attention wasn't on the feline, but rather on the vixen that sat in her wooden rotating desk chair. He watched her, his love, his desire, his passion, his living proof that angels walk amongst mortals as she pulled out a small card and held it in her paws. He smiled lovingly as he noticed it was one of his calling cards. _She still feels for you, hot shot,_ he thought to himself. Many a night he would take a seat on this roof and watch her through this same window, always puzzled that she would never pull the curtains closed.

His eyes widened in realization, she knew he watched her through that window. As if by some paranormal force or circumstance, Inspector Fox stood up from her chair and glanced out of the window. Reaching up to close the glass door but she soon froze as she spotted a shadowed figure crouched on the roof across from her. Sly's body went stiff as Carmelita glanced in his direction. He lifted his paw from the binoc-u-com and gave a gentle wave to her.

Surprisingly, he watched her return the gesture, albeit hesitantly but she did in fact wave to him. His grin widened as he continued to watch her. Failing to resist the urge growing inside him, he packed his binoc-u-com and scurried over to the window sill. Standing on the edge of the window, he bent his knees and rested his arms on his thighs. "Hey," he spoke. "How was your day?"

"Stalking me again, ringtail?" Carmelita walked back towards her desk and threw the calling card back into her drawer.

"I prefer 'admirer from a distance' and to answer your question, I simply wanted to see you before you left work."

"You've got some nerve showing your face here. You know how I've been-

"You didn't answer my question." Sly's sudden interruption caught Carmelita off guard. She stared at the raccoon for a moment before responding.

"It was fine, investigated a robbery today at a hardware store. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you, criminal?" She leered in accusation to what the raccoon might have been doing since the month he seemed to just disappear out of thin air.

"Nope, wouldn't know anything about that. My gang hasn't been doing too much lately so don't worry about investigating anything new that had popped up tomorrow morning. If you haven't noticed, I'm not on any record sheets for any thefts."

"So what, you want a medal?" Carmelita huffed as she sat back down in her chair and rotated to face away from him and those eyes. Sly stepped inside and placed both paws on the backrest of the chair, playfully wheeling the fox around the office. She went stiff for a moment as she nervously clutched the sides of her seat but soon began to relax. She even caught herself giggle as she was pushed around her office on the wheels of her desk chair.

Sly finally stopped her in front of her desk and she stood up. Leaning forward, the raccoon pulled off his cap and looked into the fox's chocolate brown irises. "I'd prefer a kiss then a medal," he leaned closer; Carmelita simply stood there and watched him advance towards her. "If it isn't asking too much from you."

"More then you could ever afford ringtail." She placed a paw to his chest to push him away, but she never did. She simply rested her paw on that spot on his chest, feeling the warm fibers of his sweater on her palm. He leaned in closer to her muzzle, she didn't move an inch. Their noses touched, causing goose bumps to rise on the skin beneath her bright red and orange fur, she remained still.

She felt his heart beat like a jackhammer against concrete, their warm breath blasting against each other's face. She closed her eyes and leaned forward, taking matters into her own paws. Carmelita's paws roamed across the vast landscape of his chest while he came up to cup the sides of her face. Sly's pointed ear twitched to the sound of a turning door knob and he quickly tore away from Carmelita's lips and bolted out of the window. Dorian stepped into the office, two steaming cups of coffee clutched in his paws as he paused to see Carmelita standing in the middle of the office with her lips parted and her eyes closed.

"Um, partner?" he spoke, shaking the vixen from her trance. She shook her head and realized that Sly had disappeared as she glanced out the window. "Carmelita?" She turned to see Booker still standing there with a confused expression painted on his face.

"Oh, Booker, I didn't hear you come in. Thank you for the coffee." She grabbed the cup from his offered paw and took a sip.

"Is everything ok, boss ma'am?"

"Hm? Oh yes, everything's fine," she paused as she glanced out the window. "Everything's fine."

"Alright then, I don't know about you, but I hear my baby calling me and she's begging me to drive home so I'll see you in the morning." He was referring to his car as his "baby". She wouldn't be surprised if he was seriously in love with that piece of machinery.

"Alright, goodnight, Dorian, and mind the speed limit."

"Yes mother." She watched him leave, snatching his coat and closing the door behind him. She set the coffee down and paused before she closed the window and latched it shut. Carmelita cursed herself for giving into the raccoon's charms, but she didn't stay angry for long however. The vixen combed her fingers through her ebony curls and brushed her furry digits against something that stuck in her curly locks.

Clutching onto the foreign object, she plucked out a certain calling card from her hair. The underside of the card held a message written in dark blue ink from the sharp edge of a quill tipped pen. _"I am only the size of your fist but I make all the difference in life. I have holes from the start but in time those holes will close. I make noise but you don't hear me. What am I?" _It took her only a moment to find the answer to the riddle.

"A heart." She placed the card into her desk drawer beside the other one that made residence there. She turned off the light of her office and locked the door behind her. "So you still love me, ringtail," the vixen spoke to herself for she was the only one who was still present at this late hour in the night. "Fine, I can accept that. I still love you too, you and those damn eyes of yours."

Those damn eyes of his.


	3. Suckers and Scoundrels

**Chapter 3**

**Suckers and Scoundrels **

* * *

**S**ylvester "Sly" James Cooper sat in the shabby, patchwork sofa with his booted feet propped up on the table in front of him. He would occasionally flip through a few pages of the Thevious Raccoonus and jot down a note or two in the ancient tome. Murray stood at his left, pumping his left arm with a barbell and a large hotdog slathered in mustard in his right hand. Bentley sat in between Sly and Murray as they all eagerly looked over the turtle's shoulder. He straitened his glasses and swallowed the lump in his throat as he slowly unrolled the blue paper that Sly had handed to him when he finally arrived at the safe house.

Slowly he unrolled the paper on the table, the anticipation was agonizing. Sly placed his book down and Murray placed his barbell and hotdog on the table as they all watched. "Aw c'mon, Bentley, open it already!" Murray shouted, jumping up like a kid on Christmas. The turtle turned around and cleared his throat at the hippo.

"Ahem, I'll have you know this is a very delicate piece of paper. One false move and who knows, it could be ripped in half. And what if it was booby trapped, we could all be blown sky high if we just barge in and-

Sly jumped up and quickly pulled open the blue paper to its full length. Bentley screamed and ducked under the table as Murray leaped away and took cover behind the worn red sofa that sat in the hideout. The raccoon slowly opened one eye and noticed that everything was still in one piece, so he tapped a finger on Bentley's shelled hide and gestured for him to sit up. The turtle peaked above the table and slowly sat back up, straitening his glasses. "Yes well, ahem, good work, Sly."

"Sure thing, pal," He patted his friend's shoulder and called for Murray to come out from behind the couch. They all crowded around the table, staring intently at the large blue piece of paper that stretched across the length of the table's surface. The three pairs of eyes that were present in the room grew wide and full. "This, this is impossible!"

"What, how who, when, why?!" Murray clutched both sides of his head and shook in frustration.

"This can't be right, my calculations were correct. I did my math right; I always do my math right!" Bentley shouted, throwing up his hands and curling them into fists. Sly brought his paw to the table and slammed it down like a hammer.

"How...how were they able to do this right from under our noses?!"

* * *

The cold air seeped through the cracks of the window sill and filled the room with a crisp, nourishing sensation. Plumes of white steam floated across the floor as their ethereal bodies soon dissipated from lack of heat to sustain their existence. The thundering of water escaping from a showerhead smacked against the tiled floor as Carmelita pulled back the stall curtain and stepped inside. The stream of water dampened her ebon hair, smoothing out the curls and letting it fall against her shoulders. She let out a quiet sigh as she relaxed with the warm and comforting water.

The fox pushed her hair so that the bulk hung behind her back as she grabbed the shampoo bottle, squeezing out the white goop and lathering it into her sleek, dark hair. She twisted the showerhead to change the stream of water from a gentle misting to a quicker and harder spout. The jets of water slapped against her shoulders, kneading the flesh and fur and muscles like a pair of comforting paws. _Like his paws,_ she quickly shook the thought from her mind and worked the soap into the blazing red fur that covered her body. Rinsing the white bubbling foam from her body, she turned the continuous spray of water off with a twist of the knob in front of her.

Grabbing a towel on the hook by the door, she rubbed it against her head and shook out her hair, pulling out an elastic band and tying it all back into a tail. A few curls escaped the grip of the elastic band and sprouted from above her brow, the dark spirals of hair dangling in front of her face. Carmelita emerged from the bathroom, steam still rising from her body, making her appear more as a spiritual being then a mortal woman. She slipped on a pair of underwear and pulled on a silk nightgown, walking out to the kitchen to fetch a cold glass of water. Bringing the glass to her lips, she glimpsed a slight movement from the reflective surface of her cup.

Her eyes widened as she quickly dived to the floor. The glass cup shattered in her paw as she fell to the floor and crawled on her belly to her bedroom. Another silenced shot laced through the window and struck the counter above her; she glanced up at the whistling noise above her head and watched as the red path of a laser sight danced in the air above her body. "Not good," she whispered. A third shot blasted through the window, making another hole in the glass and crashing into the black coffee machine near the microwave on the counter. "That was a gift you bastard!"

She crawled into her bedroom and fished for what she desired underneath her mattress. Grasping the cold metal of the treasure she sought after, she pulled out a nickel plated forty-five automatic and threw away a few bullets out the window of her apartment. This sniper was good, but he shot too quickly, he didn't know how to take his time. Carmelita ducked behind her bed as a bullet reduced her pillow into an explosion of feathers and fabric. Resting her arms on the bed, she aimed down the sights of her pistol and slowly closed her left eye shut.

"C'mon, scumbag lets see that little flash." She tightened her finger on the trigger, thumbing back the hammer and letting the air that sat in her lungs hiss out of her coal black nose. Her heart stopped as she saw a bright flash erupt from a sniper barrel as the whole scene played out to a snail's pace. The bullet flew past her face; she didn't make a sound but simply let the bullet resting in her pistol make all the noise she needed. The bullet erupted from the barrel as it slid back and a small plume of fire flew out of the end, propelling the lethal projectile forward.

Her ears flickered to the satisfying sound of the round sinking into flesh and the subtle _thump_ of a limp body falling to the floor. The laser sight disappeared, so did the fear that raced in her heart. "Miss Fox, are you alright?!" She turned to hear an alarm filled shout from the other side of her door. The fox slowly opened the wooden door and smiled reassuringly to the female squirrel on the side.

"Yes, Mrs. Felony, I'm alright." She glanced behind the middle aged brown animal and noticed that nearly half of the apartment's occupants stood behind her.

"We heard gun shots," said a Shepard, Carmelita wasn't sure of his name; he only just began renting a room.

"We thought the worst for you, darling." Said a cheetah, she clasped her paw with her husband who stood behind her.

"You're sure you're alright?" Mrs. Felony stood there as the group behind her began to dissipate back into their respective rooms.

"Yes, I'll be fine. That guy won't be around to bother any of us anymore. We'll investigate it first thing in the morning." Carmelita patted the smaller squirrel's shoulder and withdrew into her room. She ran to the kitchen and cradled the remains of her coffee maker in her paws. "Bastard," she hissed. She placed the pieces of glass and plastic into the trash bin and listened to the echoing police sirens that screamed down the street, growing louder as they came to a stop near her apartment. With a sigh she put on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt as she came down to street level and began flashing her badge. "Just one good night of sleep would be nice," she groaned, "Just one."

* * *

"How, how, how, how, how, how, how h-,

"Bentley, snap out of it!" Sly grabbed the turtle by the shoulders and shook him profusely. "Just stay calm ok, just stay calm. Now, we're ok here, we don't have anything to worry about. We just need to keep looking ok, just calm down, JUST CALM DOWN!!"

"But, but, but, I was wrong, I'm never wrong. All my sources, all my calculations they all pointed to this being the logical solution to the problem!" The blue paper remained untouched on the table. What they thought would contain the schematics for the construction of the most evil, vile contraption ever created was instead the message "You damned thieves, your nothing but a bunch of suckers and scoundrels," written in bold letters. The fabled Clockwerk Schematics were still floating out there somewhere, clutched in the paws of some slimy scumbag hell bent on world domination no doubt. Sly scratched the nape of his neck with the hook of his cane, his foot twitching faster as he lowered the hook to scratch his back.

He paced back and forth, a paw to his chin and the other grasping his cane. "Where would they keep it hidden," he pondered "This was their main stomping grounds in Paris, right?" He shrugged his shoulders at Bentley who glanced up at his computer screen and began typing furiously on the keyboard.

"Yes, everything is here. Thief net has never steered us wrong, never!" Murray shivered at the prospect of seeing Clockwerk soaring through the skies, nearly turning his pink skin to a ghostly white.

"They would have everything they would need right on that piece of paper, building materials, lists of how to construct everything. And even information on a new hate chip." The hate chip, Sly still remembered the day he held that little flat piece of technology in his gloved paws, and watched as Carmelita reduced it to dust from under her boot. He thought it was over, but some thirty days earlier, Bentley had gotten an anonymous tip from one of the local thieves on Thief net. Clockwerk was a machine, and a machine needed someone to build it, and with those who built it, they would need a record of the project and what was needed to build it, a schematic.

The raccoon smacked his cane against the wall, listening to the metal crack against the hollow wood. "H-hey, guys, guys, I got something here!" Bentley began typing on his keyboard again. Murray and Sly stood next to him and watched the screen intently. The window of an instant messaging center appeared on the dark blue background of the Thief net website.

Sly always was amazed how the individuals who created this site were able to sidestep the government and all the internet security systems, they had no idea some of the top thieves around the globe all gathered in this one spot. The unknown person on the other end of the instant messaging conversation began typing.

"_Did you acquire the schematic?" _ Bentley adjusted his glasses and responded to the message.

"_Unfortunately no, the enemy must have anticipated a move like this. We got a fake copy of the schematic." _

"_Quite unfortunate...but I should have known. This group is not one to be taken so lightly." _ Sly quirked an eyebrow, this person had no user name and zero access to his Thief net account. His picture was that of a dark silhouette, it only caused the raccoon to speculate who this man or woman is. The unknown messenger began tying again. "_My sources tell me that the insignia of this group was identified by the local police force in Paris, France. A Miss Inspector Carmelita Fox I believe it was who found it. This is quite bad, if she continues to investigate and risk exposing them, I fear she will be targeted for assassination." _

Sly was about to ask Bentley to type a personal message for this identity impaired individual, but the scream of an all too familiar sound caught his attention. The screech of police sirens blared down the street along with flashes of red and blue. The raccoon glanced out the window, parting the blinds with his thumb and index finger to stare out of the small gap to see cruisers flying down the street. _Please don't turn right, _he prayed. His eyes grew wide as he watched the police vehicles turn to the right and down the street.

He wasted no time and bolted out the door, climbing a drainpipe up to the roofing of the hideout and leaping across the tiled tops of homes and buildings towards the sirens. He could hear the echoing voices of his friends behind him, he paid them no heed. _Don't be dead, Carmelita, _he kept saying over and over in his head. _You can't be dead, not here, not now. _Down a few more street blocks he finally came to a screeching halt at the edge of a roof.

He soon realized that police would be crawling all over the entire area, what was he thinking? Had he gone mad? A question only he could answer with a confident yes. He had gone mad, mad with worry and fear and grief and love. Love for Carmelita was what drove him to jump down from the shadowed roof and quietly watch the scene play out.

Sly watched from the corner of a dim alleyway, feeling as low as low could probably get. He was once part of the very group of individuals he now hid from, but it was for the sake of her, he did this all for her, even if it appeared that he did this for his own selfish gain. Speaking of her, her she came, the embodiment of a goddess. Carmelita Fox strutted around in a pair of sweatpants as she flashed her gleaming badge in her left paw and clutched a nine millimeter in her right. Sly wasn't used to seeing her with such a weapon, but what she carried wasn't even the closest thought in his mind.

Feeling as if he had just taken off a backpack full of lead and let it crash to the floor, relief washed over him like a tidal wave as he saw that she was completely uninjured aside from a few small cuts on her paw. The raccoon soon began to realize that he could sink lower then he previously thought. Hiding from her was the lowest of the low. He watched the scene play out much like a Hollywood film; the spot light was on Carmelita as it seemed to push away all other bodies so that you could clearly see her solely. He often kidded her about quitting Interpol and try out acting, God knows she had the looks.

A few officers stay and continue to talk with her while a few others go into the building across from the apartment. A meat wagon soon pulls up, causing Sly to stare wide eyed and puzzled. Did she actually kill the assassin? He noticed that the gun barrel wasn't permanently pulled back as if it were empty. He also noticed only three or so holes in the window across from her bedroom.

She had only fired somewhere in between one and three shots with a nine millimeter and was able to kill the assassin who was equipped with a fully stocked sharpshooter. Soon when all the mess was cleaned up, the body was wheeled away, and Carmelita was left alone on the sidewalk as she watched the last of the cruisers disappear. Clouds rumbled from above, thunder rolled and vibrated from within his chest as she crawled out of his shadowed corner. "Hey, blue haired angel," the raccoon spoke. Her ears perked up, only one person has ever called her by that name.

"Cooper," she said dryly. She turned her head in his direction but made sure that the raccoon could only stare at the back of her head. "Come to spoil the remainder of my night?" She turned fully around, crossing her arms and giving with a stare that could make a statue flinch.

"Come on, Carmelita. Since when have I ever spoiled anything for you?" He couldn't help but smile, he adored her fiery attitude. She walked up so that they were flush against one another, extending one of her clawed fingers and roughly jabbing his chest.

"Because of you, I've had to go through mountains of paperwork when you suddenly didn't show up to work anymore. Because of you, I can't get your damn face out of my head and get a decent night sleep. And I'm not sure, but I have a safe bet that because of you I almost got killed tonight." Her verbal explosion was ceased by a paw gently touching her lips. She wanted to grab each finger and snap it like a twig, or break them all off and shove them down his throat.

She loved him and hated him at the same time. The part that loved him was beginning to gain ground from the battle that raged inside her and it made her loath herself. A droplet of rain splattered against the brim of his blue cap, lightly sprinkling the fox's face as she drew away and wrapped her arms around herself. "Carmelita I-

"Save it, Cooper," she snapped. "I'm tired of you talking your way out of everything." The rain fell more forcibly now, spackling against windows and making the street shine like the reflective surface of a dark mirror. She turned back to stare at him and cringe as a rain drop landed on her nose. "So, you're finally listening to me. Or did you run out of smartass comments?"

"Oh no, I've got plenty saved just for you, but that wasn't what I wanted to tell you." He drew a deep breath, his nose tingling to the rusty smell of damp concrete and asphalt. Seeing as he wouldn't be interrupted, Sly pulled off his cap and held it over his heart as he kneeled down. "I know that I do not deserve your understanding, my goddess. But please show this poor soul a measure of sympathy." Carmelita curled her lips to a frown and glared down at his foolishness, yet let him continue. "Oh forgive me for I do not know what I do. If only I was as strong and brave as you, my sweet blue haired goddess."

"Alright, alright, enough, just stop fooling around and tell me what it is you want to say."

"As you wish, my sweet," he whispered as he stood up and flicked his hat into the air, leaning his head forward so that the blue cap landed on its home atop his head. "Carmelita, this is what I was telling you about," his voice became more serious, the look in his eyes was that of a complete and solid stare of strictness. "The night I had to leave you, it was for this very reason. I needed to stop these people. The man that tried to kill you tonight, he was part of this group, Carmelita, their going to rebuild Clockwerk!"

He grasped her shoulders and leaned close so that she couldn't do anything but stare into those intoxicating brown irises. Carmelita was caught off guard; she had rarely seen the raccoon so serious and so full of fear. She could only stand there in the rain, Sly's paws resting on both her shoulders. The rain fell furiously; the storm came into full force. A crack in the sky split the light from the dark like an axe to a wooden log, an explosion of thunder soon followed.

Lightning lit up the sky once more with his awesome godly powers as his brother thunder pounded on his drum again and again, shaking the very foundations of the heavens. Sly realized that they were standing in the rain at a street corner, so he let go of Carmelita and they both stepped back into the apartment to dry off and continue their conversation. "So, what you're telling me is," the fox spoke as she rubbed a towel in her hair and shook the moisture from her fur. "Whoever tried to kill me tonight is part of some large group that is trying the resurrect Clockwerk?"

"Not exactly," The raccoon spoke as he grasped the towel Carmelita tossed him. "We finished Clockwerk when you broke the hate chip; these people are attempting to make a new one."

"Do you know who they are?"

"No, but that's where you come in." Sly reached into his red holster and withdrew a small square of paper. He handed the scrap to Carmelita and she looked it over. On the parchment's face was the very same symbol of a bird of prey with outstretched wings and sinister talons. The symbol on this paper was printed instead of crudely drawn by pencil, but it was exactly the same as the one she found in the hardware store earlier this morning.

"This is the same insignia I found at the hardware store that was robbed this morning. You said you had nothing to do with that. You're not lying to me are you, ringtail?" Carmelita leered at the raccoon that sat with his legs crossed on the springy mattress in the bedroom. He defensively shook his head and gave a nervous smirk.

"Of course not, sweetheart. I wouldn't-

"Then how did you know I was working on the case involving this group?" She quirked an eyebrow and waited for a response. Sly lifted a paw and extended his index finger, attempting to emphasize his point.

"I have a perfect explanation for that. I...erm..."

"Well, go on, ringtail, defend your innocence."

"I, well, I sort of 'borrowed' the police scanner from our cruiser before I left, Hehe." Sly shrugged and batted his eyes in an innocent manner as a small child would when they've been caught doing something wrong. Carmelita curled the edge of her lip in a frown and crossed her arms again. "Sorry, but look at the bright side, now I'll be up to date on all of Paris' police activity. So if you ever need some help from say a charming master thief, I'll already know what's going on."

"Cooper..." Carmelita sighed as she took a seat on the mattress. She glanced at where her pillow used to be and shook her head. Noticing that she was upset, Sly crawled across the bed to sit down next to her and gently rubbed her back. After a brief moment of sharing a comfortable silence with the woman he loved, the raccoon felt a vibration in the holster on his left thigh and stood up from the bed.

"I'll be right back," he reassured her. "Give me five minutes." She nodded and continued to stare at the floor. Sly pressed his binoc-u-com to his face and spoke clearly into it as he heard the worry filled voice of Bentley.

"Calm down, everything's fine," his reassurance fell on deaf ears. _Wait, do turtles have ears?_ His thought was interrupted as he heard a response from the other line of the communication.

"No, everything is not fine! Sly, I'm really stressed out right now, the schematics are still out there somewhere and we have no clue how long it will take for these people to build a new Clockwerk! We need you back at the hideout now so we can figure out where they might be!"

"Bentley, I can't..."

"What, why can't you!?" Instead of responding, Sly pointed his binoc-u-com into the other room so that Bentley could see the deeply depressed Carmelita sitting by the edge of her bed. "Oh," the image of the turtle scratched the back of his head and straitened his glasses. "Well, I am glad for you that she's alright. Was there any problems?"

"Yeah, there was an assassin, but she took care of him. Unfortunately, I'm sure that won't be the last."

"You're right, Sly, but what can we do? She can't come with us; we can't keep her at the hideout."

"I'll think of something, pal. Like it or not, I love her and she's very important in all of this, remember?" The turtle lurched forward from a sneeze and rubbed his nose.

"Correct, she is needed in our future plans. With her abilities, she can be a great ally for us against this unknown group of crooks."

"Listen, Bentley..."

"Yeah, Sly?"

"I'm going to stay with her tonight. I'll be back at the hideout tomorrow morning, I promise."

"Do what you have to do, Sly. I can't stop you from doing anything, this is your choice."

"Thanks, Bentley."

"Yeah, no problem, but just because you love her doesn't change my view on cops."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." He switched off the binoc-u-com and placed it back in his red holster as he stepped back out into the bedroom. Carmelita had already taken off her sweatpants and crawled into bed. The light of the moon that shown through the cracks of the cloud filled sky enveloped the raccoon's form, giving him an otherworldly glow to project off his body. He placed his cap by the bedside table and sat on the edge of the bed as he leaned his cane against the wall.

Sly glanced up from the floor and nervously smiled. Carmelita stared at him for a moment with her brilliant eyes until she laid her head down to rest. She suddenly dropped as she remembered that her pillow was no longer there so she sat up with a sudden jerk. "I," she gently spoke, bringing a paw to her mouth as she paused. "I don't have a pillow." Sly stood up from the bed and curled his fingers from under his blue sweater and pulled it off, exposing the athletic build of his chest and abs.

She had seen Sly without a shirt before, but even now, even after she still loathed him for disappearing like he did, she found it hard to take her eyes off him. He wrapped his sweater into a heap in his paws and placed it under her head. Carmelita rested her head on the soft fibers of the sweater and nuzzled into her makeshift pillow. She looked up from the mattress at the raccoon that stood beside her bed and lightly patted a spot next to her. He immediately kicked off his boots and climbed in, grateful for the offer and lay down beside the fox.

He stared up at the ceiling and rested a paw on his chest. He felt movement beside him and watched as Carmelita pulled the sheets over their bodies and moved closer until she was resting right up against him. Carmelita moved her head from the sweater and rested it against the raccoon's chest, provoking him to reflexively suck in a breath. He rested there, staring up at the ceiling as he placed an arm around the slumbering form next to him, continuing to stare strait up. "Thanks," his ears flickered as he heard the soft voice from below him. "For spending the night, I mean."

"My pleasure," he spoke softly. He hesitated at first, but he reached up to run his fingers in her ebony locks and she cooed to his tender touch.

"Do you still love me?" Her sudden question made the raccoon stop combing his fingers through her hair, but he soon responded.

"I always will," she could hear the thumping of his heart as she buried her face into his chest. "Not loving you is an impossibility."

"That's quite a big word," her voice was muffled but Sly gave a wide grin as he heard what she said. "I thought crooks weren't that knowledgeable."

"Well, my dear, I'm no crook. Crooks are people who dress up as beggars and hold up a cardboard sign and trick people to giving up money. Crooks are people who sit in an alley and deal out cards, shuffling them and asking you to pick where the queen is hidden."

"You're still a law breaker, and when I do finally manage to get my paws on you, you'll be sitting in a cell along with them."

"But Carmelita," Sly lifted his head and nudged the soft red paws that rested on his chest. "You've already gotten your paws on me." She opened her eyes in realization as she curled her fingers, gripping the soft, grey fur on his body. She let out a sigh and shut her eyes again.

"Let's just go to sleep, I don't feel like taking you in right now."

"But tomorrow, right?" She lifted her head from his chest and stared at him with a tired, puzzled expression at the tone of his voice. He sounded as if he wanted her to bring him into custody.

"You want me to bring you in, ringtail?"

"Well, as long as we get a good chase going first."

"Fine, whatever, just go to sleep."

"Great, it's a date." Her ears perked up from her spot on his chest and her brows came together in an annoyed glare.

"It's not a date, Cooper."

"Of course not, it's just a pre-arranged meeting for us to enjoy each other's company."

"Copper...that's exactly what a date is. Forget it; I'm too tired to deal with you right now." Sly chuckled as he pulled the sheets up a bit more to cover the red fox's shoulders and he placed a paw on her back as she lay nearly on top of him, her head resting on his chest and being lulled to sleep by his comforting heart beat. He stared up at the ceiling for a bit longer and then closed his eyes. "Not...a date...Cooper..."

He heard her voice again before he fully slipped away to the comforting grip of sleep. She spoke in a quiet tone, trying to get in the last word before she fell asleep. Her breathing was rhythmic and hypnotic, her chest pressed against his side and drew away as it rose and fell along with her breathing. She had won; she had gotten the last word out before they both fell asleep. His eyelids collapsed like an avalanche, falling until they collided with the bottom lids and were welded shut.

So what if it wasn't the most romantic moment, so what if they met on harsh terms. None of that mattered to him; all he cared for was the fiery vixen that curled up next to him in his arms. A certain intimate idea popped into his head, but he immediately discarded the thought. It was far from the right moment for such an activity, he still needed to prove himself to her after this entire mess was sorted out. The rain slapped against the window, it seemed to only add comfort to the already comforting scene that took place from within the apartment building.

* * *

"So they fell for it?" A shaded body pressed his fingertips against one another as he leaned back in a cushioned seat behind a hickory wood desk. Three rats, their faces swollen from being pummeled by a series of blows nodded to the shadowy individual.

"They walked right into it. I'm terribly sorry we weren't able to show you what their faces looked like when they opened up the schematic."

"Quite unfortunate but not a necessity as long as they don't know where the real one is." The shaded form pulled out a rolled up blue piece of graph paper from the drawer and placed it on the desk. "We all know the situation at hand here?" The three rats nodded collectively. "Beautiful, Stuka, tell your boys down at the station to break out their tools, I have a more important building project for them then just making better weapons. Jacoby, get Sokoloff on the phone, tell him it's urgent."

The two rats on the right both nodded and walked out of the dark office room, the one in the middle grabbed the schematic and stuffed it into his pocket. The last remaining one disbanded after the figure from behind the desk gestured him to leave. When the door closed and he no longer heard the echoing footsteps from down the hall, the shade stood from his desk and picked up the phone that sat on the wood surface. "God damned rats, I hate rats." He placed the phone to his ear and spoke into it.

"Sokoloff..."

"What is it? I'm in the middle of something."

"Don't you mean someone?" The shade curled his lips into a grin as he heard a feminine voice in the background, she sounded quite winded as she panted furiously.

"That isn't your business now is it?"

"You know my business, it doesn't involve who you do and do not penetrate, but I need you focused, you know there is only one reason that I'd call you."

"Right, so who do you need dead?"

"I'll upload the picture and information to your computer now." The shade clicked a button on his desk and a large monitor emerged from the wood along with a black colored keyboard. He pressed a few keys and initiated the download process. After a few moments, he heard a whistle from the other end of the line.

"I'll bet she'd be good in the sack. Long curly hair, nice curves, fury in those eyes," Sokoloff continued in this manner with his dark, bone chilling voice for a few more moments. "How do you want it done?"

"Quietly..."

"My specialty, want it done quickly or could I have some fun with her before she bites the big one?"

"I truly don't care; just make sure she breathes no more."

"Hot damn, you got yourself a deal." The shadowed person thought he heard Sokoloff licking his lips and sucking back saliva as if he were drooling over a piece of meat. Then again, the woman that was pictured on his computer screen probably was considered a piece of meat in his eyes.

"I'll pay you half now, half when I know she is dead."

"You must really want her dead don't you?"

"Then you know how serious this contract is."

"Do not worry; you did call me after all. Consider her already dead and you that much more happy." Sokoloff chuckled from deep within his throat and rubbed his tongue against his sharp, pointed teeth. "How much will I be receiving altogether?"

"Oh, I'm sure the offer attached to the file I sent you is reasonable enough." Again he heard a whistle from the other side of the line.

"Yes, five hundred thousand should work nicely. But I want it in American dollars."

"Why is this?"

"I love American money, hell, who doesn't eh?" The conversation was cut off as Sokoloff began cursing in his sinister voice in his native language. The shaded figure couldn't discern half the conversation, Sokoloff was speaking quickly in Russian, but he did catch a bit of "Put on your undergarments and get the hell out of my apartment." The shaded form shook his head and continued the conversation.

"Your no better then a French prostitute, Sokoloff, do you realize that?"

"True, but I know how to please my partner better then some damn French whore."

"Just kill this woman and you'll be a very rich man."

"Now you're speaking my language. She resides in Paris, eh?"

"Correct, I'll arrange for your flight to the city of lights tomorrow morning. I suggest you pack lightly, airport security is rather tight these days and my men can bypass only so much equipment without drawing attention."

"No need to worry about that, airport security may be tight, but it does have its flaws."

"Good, then I will see you in a few days."

* * *

_Author's note: Only four days and already another chapter, happens when you have some extra free time though, I suppose. I'm having a rather difficult time with the two antagonists I've just introduced to you before the chapter ended. It's complicated, but I just cannot picture what they look like in my head, and this would prove difficult for when they do finally reveal themselves and I have no idea how to describe them. I want Sokoloff to be sinister, lustful, and somewhat mentally unstable while I want the shadowy figure sitting behind the desk to be somewhat like a mob boss, a man who is rightly feared and has henchmen do his bidding, yet he is formidable on his own. I'm asking you my friends, give me some ideas. What would these two look like? How would they react to a living breathing world? What sort of animal would you picture them as? Give me an idea, I'm asking you to help me mold a key character to the story. R&R and thank you in advance for your support and ideas, I greatly appreciate it._

-Tex


	4. Goodbye my Blue haired Angel

**Chapter 4**

**Goodbye my Blue haired Angel **

* * *

**T**he golden sun rose to greet the morning sky, releasing the famous European city from the shadows of night. The Eiffel Tower, how beautiful it looked in the morning, just one of those many treasures this world held. The window shutters were drawn wide open; the light colored curtains blew in the slight breeze and moved like living beings. The soft blowing air tickled the sleeping fox's nose as she slowly opened her eyes and stretched her limbs. As she fully opened her eyes, her stretching ceased and she focused on the blurry form that stood by her open window.

The blur came into focus after a moment to let her eyes adjust to the light. She saw a strong, solid back covered in soft, lush grey fur. Above that was a pair of broad shoulders that connected to long, toned arms. The red fox looked farther up the long, slender neck to gaze at the back of the grey furred head; a black strip of fur sat below his pointed ears and covered his eye line in a makeshift mask. She sat up, brushing away the twirling ebon spirals of hair that sat in front of her eyes and continued to look on at the strong, athletic body that was bathed in the golden light of the sun.

"Sleep well?" She stood up as the charming, masculine voice addressed her. She placed a paw on his bare shoulder as he continued to speak. "The sun just started rising, you want to watch it with me?" How could she say no?

She wrapped an arm around his torso and he did the same. Though the sun rise was gorgeous, Sly couldn't help but glance down at the essence of beauty that stood beside him. Her red and orange fur was well complimented with the warm colors of the sun's rays, she appeared like an angel bathed in gold. They both stood there for a long moment, looking at the clouds and how they were painted a blazing orange in the sky. Sooner then either one of them wished, the sun fully exposed itself, thus ending the beautiful experience as the orange and purple glow began to dissolve into the blue sky.

"They never do last long enough," he sighed. He felt goose bumps rise on his skin as Carmelita traced her fingers up the crevice in the middle of his back where his spine sat. He moved his paw up to her neck and he firmly kneaded the area where her neck met her shoulders.

"I need to get ready for work in a little bit," the red fox sighed. "I don't suppose you can stay for a little while longer?" Sly glanced down and rested his head on hers, inhaling the intoxicating aroma that was her natural scent. He lightly nodded his head up and down as it rested in the thick forest of her ebon hair.

"I could stick around for a short time," he paused to inhale another lungful of her scent, "If it's alright with you."

"It is, just promise me you won't barge in while I'm getting dressed." She softly jabbed his side with her elbow. He reflexively drew back and chuckled as he picked up his sweater that sat on the bed. He smiled; it smelt like her as he smoothed out the wrinkles and pulled it over his body. Flipping his cap into the air and catching it on the top of his head, he grabbed his boots on the far end of the room with a quick flick of the wrist and the hook of his cane.

Lacing up his boots and slipping on his gloves, he waited outside of Carmelita's bedroom. His sharp ears picked up the shuffling of fabric falling to the floor and he grinned at the mental image that began to materialize in his head. Sly respected Carmelita to the fullest degree; it was just that he had to fantasize these certain things in these certain situations. Who in the right mind wouldn't? The raccoon knew how attractive she was, and she would rub it in his face every chance she had when they were together.

He remembered all those little "special" outfits she would wear on certain occasions just to drive him crazy, she knew it would always work. _How cruel the female creature is, but alas I cannot deny my love for you, _his poetic thoughts rambled on. A part of him wished that he could go back that month ago and continue to act as if he had lost his memory, but it wouldn't be right. He would be living a lie, everyday he would wake up and his heart would sink at the notion that he couldn't truly be himself in front of the woman he cherished and worshiped. "I'm done, ringtail."

His ears perked up as he heard Carmelita speak from the other side of the door and he slowly walked into the bedroom. There she was the essence of beauty, dressed in her rather tight fitting jeans and her halter top. Sly always enjoyed seeing her in work cloths, oh how the fond memories came rushing back like water breaking from a dam. "How do I look?" Sly stood there and looked up and down every inch of her, he liked what he saw.

"Very nice, I'd hit on you given the chance."

"Very funny," she holstered her shock pistol under the flaps of her brown jacket and walked over to stand in front of him, her boots nosily clomping on the floor as she moved. "You better get moving." the raccoon quirked a brow at her eagerness.

"What's the rush all of a sudden?"

"When I got home last night before you arrived, I called my partner to come pick me up for work. My car's left front tire was acting strange and I found that it was flat. So unless you want a new pair of bracelets," she patted the pair of handcuffs that dangled from her belt. "I suggest you get going."

"Are you going to be alright?"

"I have my partner with me, besides Cooper, I'm a big girl I can take care of myself." She patted the side of his face and slowly slid her paw off his muzzle as she heard a loud honk and a fast car pull up to her apartment. Carmelita glanced at the window and nudged her head in that direction. "Are you going?"

"Yeah," he sighed. He walked over to the window sill and hopped up onto it. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled softly. "So..."

"So...aren't you going to say goodbye?" She stood there for a moment, her ears lying flat as she heard another impatient honk from Dorian's car horn. Sly smiled and shook his head.

"I never was too good at goodbyes, besides I'll see you again soon enough." He glanced down at the street far below him and then back at Carmelita, his grip tightening on the shaft of his cane. "But if it makes you feel better, goodbye my blue haired angel." With that he kissed his palm and blew against it to send the kiss aloft and float towards her. He vaulted over the window sill, flipping forward and landing on a clothesline and sliding down to a street lamp.

He flew through the air, sprinting down rooftops and out of sight from the glow of the rising sun. Carmelita heard the annoying honk of Dorian's horn again and she walked out to the front where he awaited in his bright red muscle car. "Geeze, Fox, took you long enough. You know gas isn't as cheap as it used to be." She huffed and slid into the passenger seat, slamming the door closed. "Hey, hey easy, don't hurt my baby like that."

"Just drive, Dorian. I'm not in the mood right now."

"Oh, not to change the subject or anything but I heard about last night," she kept her eyes forward and let the ocelot continue. "A damn sniper, someone wanted you taken out big time, you must have made a new enemy at our little investigation yesterday."

"Dorian, I said not now."

"Fine, fine, whatever you say boss ma'am." There was an uncomfortable silence as Dorian nervously tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. "Hey, let's listen to some music, what do you like?" She glanced out of the corner of her eye and remained silent; he simply sighed and switched on the oldies station. "Not to be disrespectful of your own privacy and all, but who pissed in your cereal this morning?"

The fox turned her head to stare at the feline. He kept his eyes on the road with a thin lipped frown. "Just because you're angry and all doesn't mean you have to beat it out of your system by given me the silent treatment."

"Don't ask me that right now."

"Sorry, boss ma'am but we still got," he glanced down at his watch and smirked, "ten minutes until you can start giving me orders."

"Chief is going to take me off the case and stick me into the protection program. So while I'm sitting on my ass, those bastards that tried to kill me are going to be having their fun. I don't even know who they are, but I do know that they all share that insignia we found at the hardware store yesterday. That's why I'm angry, Dorian, because I won't be able to finish this."

"Relax, boss ma'am, even if chief kicks you off I'll make sure to get the job done for you. But since you wanna get these punks that bad, I'll back you up so we can continue to get to the bottom of this. Chief said you are the best officer he's got, and this happens to be quite a tough case if I do say so myself." He continued to ramble on, the car ride seemed to be longer then she would have liked. Finally they arrived; Dorian glided his beautiful red vehicle into an empty parking space and engaged the parking break.

Offering a paw to Carmelita, he helped her exit from the passenger side and gently closed the door behind her. "Don't worry," he said reassuringly, "I know how to handle chief he's not too hard to figure out. That investigation is as good as ours." The two officers walked up the stairs and into the main building. As Carmelita was about to open the door to her office, an all too familiar shout caused her to slam her eyes shut and flatten her ears.

"Fox, in my office!" She bit her lip to stifle a curse, glancing at her shoulder as she felt the ocelot rest his paw on it. The two animals stepped inside Chief Barkley's office, the smoking remains of a cigar was ground into a rust red ashtray. He glanced at Dorian and pointed at the door. "I only need to speak with Inspector Fox, Constable."

"Sorry, chief, but anything you gotta say to her, you can say to me."

"Well I can certainly tell you after you hand me your badge."

"Hey ya know what would be a good idea, if I just wait outside." He slipped out of the office quicker then Barkley could respond and he refocused on Carmelita.

"He's quite the character. I knew you two would work well together."

"He can make life more...interesting I suppose. So what is it you need to discuss with me?" Barkley gestured for her to take a seat, she remained standing. He cleared his throat and began speaking.

"We've got a significant match to the insignia you and Constable Booker found yesterday. However, when we attempted to learn more about the origin of this symbol, our computers seemed to have been repelled somehow from investigating further." He paused to pull out a small file from under his desk and slid it across his desk towards Carmelita. She cracked it open and began scanning every piece of text thoroughly and carefully.

"What is this?" She quirked an eyebrow and slapped the files shut. Barkley laced his fingers together and sighed.

"All the information we have on this group."

"All you have is the identity of the sniper and records of witnessing this insignia."

"Which is why I'm keeping you on the case, we need you and Constable Booker to continue this."

"...Score!" The excited shout of Dorian was heard from the other side of the thin walls that established Barkley's office. Carmelita glanced at the door and then back to Barkley, contemplating whether or not to mention the little bit of information Sly had given her last night.

"Well, you have your assignment, Inspector. Good luck, and see if some of your success and maturity rubs off on Booker." The fox cracked a smile and took the files that sat on the wood desk.

"Chief, that's a case even I can't handle."

* * *

The destination was set, the mission was planned out, and the plane tickets were in paw. Sly sat near the front of the plane that was flying towards the great city of London England. Bentley sat beside him; his disguise was composed of a full faced beard and mirror lens aviators. He also wore a wide brimmed western style hat and a matching color suit. Murray sat behind them, a fake mustache and bushy eyebrows covered his face and his cloths were quite different then he was accustomed to wearing. Sly styled his hair up into a fauxhawk; the tall trail of spikes ran from the top of his brow nearly down the back of his neck.

His eyes were concealed by a pair of orange tinted glasses and his face was covered with a fake goatee. He wore a black leather jacket and a British flag on the white t-shirt he wore under it. They flew first class of course; it wasn't like they didn't have the money. With the recovery of most of the treasures that sank into the ocean during the Cooper vault job, they had all the money they would ever need. Sly glanced out the window, the blue sea greeted his face and he sunk back into his seat with a sigh.

Bentley nudged his friend with an elbow and cleared his throat. "Is something wrong, Sly?" The raccoon rested his chin on his fist while he propped it up on the armrest of his seat.

"It's just the prospect of leaving Carmelita, what if she needs our help? Those goons that tried to kill her those few days ago could try again."

"Sly, you need to-

"Hello, can I get you gentlemen anything else?" Bentley slightly jumped as the female flight attendant spoke from behind him. He cleared his throat and disguised his voice to sound a bit more believable along with his outfit.

"Uh, ahem, naw missy, were both just fine, here." The flight attendant glanced up at the raccoon who stared out the window.

"And can I get you anything, sir?" Sly looked up at the thin collie and shook his head. He sighed again and sucked in air through his nose, nervously fidgeting around in his seat. He never was one for sitting still; he was used to always being on the move.

"Sly, would you sit still for a minute?" Bentley placed a green hand on the raccoon's shoulder. "You're making me nervous, and we really don't need that right now."

"Sorry, Bentley, but I can't help it. Look the sooner we land, the sooner we can get down to business and then we can get back to Paris. So what is our plan of action?" The turtle quickly pulled open his carryon bag and pulled out his laptop. Resting it on his lap, he typed furiously on the location of Manchester where their main area of operation would take place.

After a few minutes of looking up information, he pointed towards the screen and addressed Sly. "First we're going to need to establish a hideout. I've located a rather good area near the Manchester church. There are a few condemned buildings that no one has used for quite some time, a perfect HQ for our plan set up, I e-mailed Penelope and she said she would meet us in that area." He replaced his aviators into his suit pocket and slid on his thick reading glasses.

Sly leaned towards the screen and watched with interest. "So," he stated. "Do we have a clue as to what we're going to do when we finally reach Manchester?"

"Simple my nocturnal companion, I've devised a plan as to where our elusive schematic is located. Recent British police reports have shown us multiple accounts of graffiti sightings and reports of many robberies of surplus stores. Take a look." Bentley turned the screen towards Sly whose expression brightened at the sight of seeing a black silhouette of a wing spread bird of prey that was spray painted onto walls around the cities of London and Manchester.

"Excellent, we'll meet Penelope, get a safe house and start in the morning." Sly slammed his fist against his open palm to accentuate his statement.

"Yeah, and I hear those British got some tasty chocolate," Murray exclaimed from his seat behind Sly.

* * *

The charming voice of Frank Sinatra emitted from the speaker system. He was singing "Witchcraft", his favorite song. The plane landed in Paris international dead on time, the assortment of animals and reptiles flooded out of the extended hallway that connected to the aircraft. The chauffeur glanced down at his ticking watch and waited for his arriving passenger. As he looked up, he saw a very tall Wolfdog, a cross between a grey timber wolf and the Husky breed that hailed from his native land of Siberia.

He was clad in a thick leather trench coat, its black color made him stand out from the rest of the crowd. He wore a white collared shirt and pitch black necktie that hung down low to his stomach. A black leather belt around his waist had small sleeves used for storing bullets and small edged weapons. In his right paw was a duffle bag while his left was shoved into his coat pocket. His dark blue jeans were spotless and steam pressed, making it free of any wrinkles, his leather brogues shoes were also spotless and polished to a gleaming black shine.

He strode over to the chauffer, the neatly dressed driver only came up to his shoulders. He striated his hat and reached in his pocket. "Y-you are, ahem, I-it is with most gratitude and honor to be you're driver this afternoon, Mr. Sokoloff." The annoying sounds of the chauffeur's stuttering caused the hybrid dog to lay his pointed ears back and he wordlessly gestured for the driver to lead him to his transportation. The black Lincoln Town Car chirped as the alarm system was deactivated and the locks clicked open.

The chauffer reached for Sokoloff's bag but nervously withdrew as the Wolfdog reared back his forearm. "Rule one, no one touches my tools." The erratic Russian opened the passenger door himself and delicately placed his bag behind him in the back seats. The driver slid into the driver's seat and started the car. As they drove, Sokoloff reached into his coat pocket and flipped open a cell phone, extending the antenna by pulling on it with his teeth.

"This had better be important."

"Oh it is, sunshine, it is."

"Sokoloff," the shady voice came from the other line of the call. "Have you finally reached Paris?"

"I'm on my way to our agreed upon destination. I'll be seeing you a few hours, and don't forget my money."

"You get half now, Sokoloff, remember that."

"You talk as if you don't trust me, old friend. Is it in American bills?"

"Twenties, fifties, and one hundred American dollar bills as you requested. Hopefully the reminder that you get the rest afterwards will conclude that I invested my money wisely in your services."

"We shall see," he sneered as he slipped out a thick cigar and placed it in-between his teeth and struck a match. "Just remember who you are dealing with."

"To keep this discrete, we are going to use codenames for our radio communication lines so we cannot be easily traced. I will supply you with the communication equipment when you reach our meeting point." Sokoloff listened with mild interest; he was rather busy fanaticizing about his upcoming kill. He was fired up for this contract, it wasn't everyday that a gorgeous woman was on his list, not too mention half a million dollars for doing what he does best.

"The deal is a seal, my friend. I just have one question for you."

"If you must..."

"May I pick my own codename? No disrespect to you my mentally developed business associate, but I've seen the codenames for most of your cronies and it makes my stomach do somersaults every time I hear them."

"Very well, shall I just give you the fillings from my teeth and shine your boots while I'm at it?"

"No need for hostilities. Any who, I'm curious to know what codename you've given yourself."

"Simply call me Colonel, hopefully you will remember that."

"Mind if I call you Colonel Sunshine?"

"With every fiber of my mortal being..."

"Good, I'll see you in a few hours, Colonel Sunshine."

"Don't make me change my mind, Sokoloff. And what will be your codename be?" The hybrid scratched his chin until a thought popped into his head.

"Call me The Fox Hunter."

* * *

The rain came down, slowly at first but then with more force along with the passing storm. It wasn't anything new, nothing to write home about, it usually always rains in London. The rusty smell of rain drenched streets and concrete tickled the raccoon's nose as he and his companions sprinted into the taxicab they hailed. "So," the bulldog driver said. "Where are you off to gents?"

Bentley read off the address to the cab driver, the bulldog nodded his head and sped off into traffic. Sly looked out the window, catching the impressive sight of Big Ben. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, he pulled out his binoc-u-com and snapped a photo of the massive clock tower. _Carmelita would like this,_ he thought to himself as the picture slipped out from the small slot under the glass lens of his optics. _She always wanted to visit London._

It was true, they had both been to London before, yet it wasn't on the most enjoyable of visits. He had to snatch the queen's crown from her own bedroom to replace the fake jewelry with the real gems that had been stolen by an organized crime lord. He stole from the Queen of England yes, but he managed to pass the crown to Carmelita and inform her on the details that he replaced the fake gems with the genuine article. In the end, the Queen got her real crown back, the crime lords were behind bars, Carmelita got a well deserved promotion, and the queen's royal guard got a wake up call to update their security. It was one of his most enjoyable jobs he had pulled off in awhile.

Manchester was quite a ways away, yet it was where they had to go. Thankfully they weren't taking the taxi the entire way there, even though he could afford it a trillion times over. His chocolate brown eyes widened and his stomach iced over, his heart felt like a jackhammer in his chest. Something was wrong, he could feel it. The question was what?

Clutching his beating heart, Bentley quirked an eyebrow and placed a hand on the raccoon's shoulder. "Everything alright, pal?" Sly glanced at him and furrowed his brows.

"I-I don't know, it just feels like something is wrong, very wrong."

* * *

"Carmelita Montoya Fox, even the name could get a rise out of me."

"Focus, Fox Hunter, you are to take her out secretly. She is no mere officer of the law, and you know how risky killing a police officer is." The Wolfdog snatched the small microphone earpiece and placed it into his pointed right ear. Colonel did the same with his, placing a finger to his right ear and speaking in a clear tone. "Testing...one...two..."

"A very nice piece of equipment, Sunshine, I can hear you clearly as if you were standing right next to me."

"We are standing next to one another, but I'm glad to hear that this equipment worked, I suppose those rats are good for some things. And stop calling me Sunshine!" Colonel pulled out a briefcase, the sliver reflective surface captured the grinning face of the Wolfdog that looked upon it with great interest.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"It is," the shadowed form flipped open the case and the many faces of past American presidents came to greet the hybrid dog. He reached for the briefcase and clipped the silver lid shut. Colonel offered a folded piece of paper, his paw reaching out from the wall of shadows that concealed him. "Her address, work schedule, and locations she frequents. I want you to make sure she is dead before you depart, check her pulse, heart beat, check every part of her and confirm the kill."

"I will, right after I thoroughly check a few specific parts of her first."

"Don't take too long, she must be dealt with swiftly. Do not underestimate her either; she was able to dispatch one of my personal hit men with relative ease. She is one of the top officers of Interpol which means she will have people looking for her and investigating her whereabouts when she no longer lives. You are to leave the country when this happens, leave no trace of yourself."

"No need to worry, as I said before you should consider her already dead." The Wolfdog held the briefcase under his arm and clutched his duffle bag into his right paw. Colonel's shadowed head seemed to slowly move up and down, scanning the Wolfdog's clothing.

"Interesting style you are wearing, Fox Hunter. I'm rather surprised to see you wearing a tie and brogues dress shoes, did you finally develop some class?" The hybrid canine slightly drew back as he couldn't immediately find a response.

"I already have class, I just chose something a little less attention grabbing then my normal attire, although I still am wearing my coat, but I just look too good in it to leave it at home. A shame that I will have to change my shoes for my boots, I rather like them." He looked down at the glossy leather brogues, the light from the falling sun gleaming off the smooth, polished black surface.

"It must be quiet," Colonel said in a hushed tone. "No one must hear or see you."

"Do not worry; she will breathe her last by midnight tonight. I will clear all traces of my existence and you will be a very happy man." The shadowed Colonel reached into his pocket and pulled out another piece of paper, this one small and square. He handed it to the hybrid that clutched it and studied the insignia on the front side. The black silhouette of the striking bird of prey was printed on the square's face.

The Wolfdog sneered as he understood what the Colonel wanted. "I'll leave it on her cold lifeless corpse before I depart."


	5. A Rather Unfortunate Day

**A Rather Unfortunate Day**

* * *

**I**t was dusty, it was cold, it was dark, and he wasn't positive but he thought he glimpsed a dried blood stain on the ceiling above the couch. Sly stood over the sink in the bathroom, the light bulb was burnt to a crisp so he had to feel for the handles to turn on the warm water. Washing the gel from his hair and the glue that held on his fake facial hair, he looked up into the dusty, smudged mirror. He splashed water onto his face a few times, attempting to shake off the grogginess, he had work to do and he needed to get sharp. A knock at the door caused his ears to perk up; he looked out of the small hole in the door and noticed that no one was there.

Puzzled, he cracked open the door and stuck his head out cautiously as he looked from left to right. From below him, the sound of someone clearing their throat coaxed him to look down and notice the small mouse, Penelope standing with her paws on her hips. Sly smiled and fully opened the door. "Ah, there you are. Sorry but I didn't see you down there."

"Very funny, may I come in?" Sly stepped aside to allow the mouse to step inside.

"Welcome to our beautiful home, we hope you'll enjoy your stay." She was less then thrilled as she saw her new residence. The carpet was worn and dirty, at least what was left of the carpet. The wooden floor looked like a death trap of splinters that would reduce your feet to ribbons if you were stupid enough to walk around without shoes, and the couch, well it would probably be a good idea to never sit on it ever again. Penelope hefted a bright blue backpack and took in another look of her surroundings before turning back to Sly.

"So, where can I set up?" Sly pondered for a moment before pointing down the hall.

"Bentley's room has some extra space. You can set up there with him, I'm sure you two won't mind." He closed the door and gave the small mouse a friendly hug. "Glad to have you with us again, Penny." She returned the hug and walked down the hallway, leaving the raccoon alone in the dark living room.

He grabbed a cushion from the couch and set it on the floor to sit down on. The television set seemed to be in decent condition, and with Bentley's help, they got nearly all the channels. "I just hope no one notices the cable running from the electrical lines to the house," he hoped out loud. He sat and watched, flipping through channel after channel, some came in while others left him with a static filled screen. He grew anxious as he waited for when it was the time to start his little assignment.

Sly lost interest in the television; he never was one for watching. He caught his cap that was lying on the dining room table and walked down the hallway, his footsteps creaking every time they pressed against the floor. "I hate waiting," he muttered, "There's never anything to do."

* * *

"So, wanna get something to eat after this?" Booker leaned up against the brick wall, staring down at the vixen that knelt near him. Carmelita was thoroughly examining a piece of fabric that was torn from a larger piece; the black fibers were pulled and stretched. She had found this little piece of cloth simply sitting on the floor of the shady alleyway, they had gotten a report of suspicious activity, her pondering was confirmed as she saw a small bird of prey symbol stitched into the little piece of cloth.

"They were definitely here," she said, "The fabric's still taught it was ripped just recently."

"Carmelita, we've been at this for weeks," Booker complained, "So far all we've got is another surplus store completely cleaned out, reports of local gangs being more active in the last few days, and now this, a little piece of cloth. C'mon lets go get something to eat, it'll be nice, just you and me, wadda ya say?"

"That's funny, for a second it sounded like you were asking me out on a date," she chuckled dryly as she stood up and glanced at the piece of cloth before turning back to face Dorian. "But I know you're not that stupid to try something like that, right?" The ocelot remained quiet. "I thought so."

"So," Booker said, clearing his throat, "Find anything that can actually give us something to go on?" He stuffed his paws into his coat as the red fox glanced at the cloth again. Her eyes squinted as she delicately plucked a small strand of fur off the piece of cloth. "Well?"

"Got it," she exclaimed, shoving the strand of fur in front of Dorian's nose, "I knew they'd slip up soon enough! Let's get this to the labs and run a DNA scan on it. We'll find the one that matches the DNA scan, take him for questioning, and this whole thing will burst wide open."

"Wonderful, now can we get something to eat for god sakes?!"

* * *

"The sweet smells of gun polish," the deep, chilling voice of the Siberian Wolfdog rumbled like thunder. The vocal cords of his throat vibrated with each passing hum of his rumbling voice, much like the strings of a harp being plucked repeatedly. Resting in his lap was his fully constructed SVD Dragunov sniper rifle, the instrument of silent death sat contently as the wolf hybrid ran a cloth up and down the long barrel and chamber of the rifle. The semi-automatic rifle gleamed as Fox Hunter had finished polishing and cleaning it, inspecting every last little detail of the weapon. Though his specialty consisted of taking out specific targets with nearly no noise or trace of him even involved in the act of killing, he was rather fond of seeing his target's eyes as they dimmed and the life drained from their irises.

He had taken a position in one of the top floors of a small building that was currently under construction, sitting by the open window and looking down upon a particular apartment complex. Fox Hunter had traded in his dress shoes for a pair of black IDF combat boots, laced up past his ankles and woven up to his calf. His trench coat was still draped over him; steadily being covered in small particles of plaster as he slipped inside the building right after the construction team had finished their job for the day. He placed his rifle onto the tripod, bringing his eye to the lens of the scope and looking out into the window of a particular apartment building. He glanced down at his watch; she was still at work and would be for a few more hours.

He leaned back in his foldable chair, closing his eyes and fantasizing about the upcoming event. So much money, so much to think about what to spend it on, and of course, he fantasized about the warm naked flesh of the fox and his sick dreams of what he would do before he killed her. He glanced at his claws, cleaned and sharp just as he liked, they gleamed in the sun's rays. The Wolfdog sat forward, his chair creaking in protest to the shifting weight. "I love my job," he rumbled, "To think I get paid for doing this. Life surely is good. Well, for me at least, for you my dear Miss Fox, I believe you're about to have a rather unfortunate day."

* * *

Night, a time of freedom and liberation, in his eyes at least it was. Sly plucked out his binoc-u-com from the red holster around his thigh and pressed the lenses to his eyes, a small screen coming to life before his gaze. Bentley's image came in after the static dissipated. "Do you read me, Sly?"

"Loud and clear," the raccoon responded, "Not to be rude or anything, but do you think we could speed things up a bit here? I'm getting a little anxious just waiting."

"In a moment, Sly," the turtle lifted up his hand as if to gesture for Sly to halt. "The plan in essence is simple, a standard breaking and entering job so we can gather information to build up from there. I hope your photography skills haven't dwindled since you were gone."

"They're sharp as ever," Sly reassured his friend, "Just point me in the right direction and I'll get the photos we need." Bentley readjusted his glasses and continued.

"Alright then, from your current position, you should see a vent to your left." Sly glanced to his left and sure enough there was a vent that he easily opened and slid into.

"Alright, that parts done," he whispered as he shimmied down the ventilation system, "What exactly am I looking for?"

"I'll mark which areas to take on your binoc-u-com; you should be able to see them highlighted when you take a look." The raccoon crawled on his belly through the narrow shaft, glancing through slits in the grates that lined the vent walls. Underneath him he could hear voices, many of which held accents that sounded almost nothing like British. His ears twitched to the cutting of metal, the hissing of blow torches and the bubbling of molten rock.

"We're going to need to step this up if we're to meet the boss' quota. Shake a leg, gentlemen, we don't need the boss angry with us." That voice did have a hint of a British accent. Sly immediately began following the voice until he could get a clear image of which it belonged to. The raccoon zoomed in on a sandy brown furred dingo sporting a pale blue button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Snapping a photo he sent the image to Bentley whose voice soon came over the speakers.

"That there is Edmond Nelson, an ex-MI6 agent I believe. What he's doing working in a criminal organization I haven't a clue." Sly panned the camera around a bit more and noticed a few scores of animals wearing goggles and face shields while they were busy welding, smelting, molding, and forging what looked to be pieces of steel molded into shapes such as weapons, armor plating, missile casings, and explosive devices. He took a snapshot and sent the operation to Bentley. "Interesting, it's almost like they were preparing for a full scale war with all those weapons being produced."

Sly quirked a brow as his binoc-u-com was pressed against it eye sockets. Looking around some more, Sly caught an interesting area with discarded uniforms of weapon smith workers. Along that were empty missile casings and barrels full of explosives. The raccoon took snapshots of the barrels of TNT, the suits, and the empty casings and sent them to Bentley. "Good eye, Sly, you could use one of those suits to blend into the crowd of workers to learn more about their operation. Those missile casings look to be empty; the perfect hiding place for one of my bombs, and those barrels of dynamite could be useful to putting a stop to this forge."

Sly replaced his binoc-u-com into his holster and began crawling up to the roof to the warehouse of war. Bentley's voice seemed to come out of thin air as Sly realized the small transmitter in his ear buzzed in. "Alright, that should be plenty enough for us to get started on a mission. Meet me back at the hideout, Sly, and we can get down to business." The raccoon nodded as he leapt from the roof to another building until he crawled down a drainpipe and scurried into the hideout.

Handing the pictures to Bentley, the turtle wheeled over to his projector that he had set up and began running through the plan as he usually would at this time, Murray and Penelope sat in chairs while Sly stood leaning against his cane. "Ahem, alright," Bentley began, clearing his throat, "Our objective has changed temporarily from our original plan of finding and stealing the Clockwerk schematics." Bentley flipped a photo into the projector of the Clockwerk schematics before flipping to the picture of the dingo, Edmond Nelson. "From what Sly had gathered, this man, Edmond Nelson appears to be in charge. He was originally an MI6 agent in London England before resigning for unknown reasons. Well it seems we now know why he chose to leave the agency, but what we don't know is why he would collaborate with an organized crime group."

Flipping another photo into the projector, he noticed that it was upside down so he hurriedly flipped it back over and continued. "This warehouse holds what we've seen to be a weapons manufacturing plant for the organized crime group that is linked to the Clockwerk schematic. Needless to say, we gotta shut this place down, who knows what these people are capable of with all this firepower." He straitened his glasses and began running through with the plan. Sly watched with interest, this could be of great importance to where the schematics were located.

"Alright then," Bentley continued, "Our first objective is to figure everything out. Murray, we'll need you to take out one of the night watchmen and take their place. Once you've taken their place, we need you to get Sly access into the warehouse for him to do his part. Next, with Murray working on the inside, Sly should be able to gain easy access into the warehouse where he will disguise as a gunsmith and pump Nelson for information. In the late hours, Nelson likes to drink so he will have a leaky mouth. Well, that's the end of phase one, we'll get started as soon as possible."

Both Sly and Murray nodded and walked out of the safe house and onto the streets. Walking down the shadowed sidewalks of the city, it wasn't long until they made it to the warehouse. Since it seemed to be the only building with active staff workers coming in and out, it was easy to spot. Murray and Sly snuck around to the back of the warehouse, taking cover behind a dumpster's left flank.

"I don't see any guards outside," Sly whispered, "We need to get one out by himself so you can take him down."

"Leave it to me, little buddy." Murray looked around for a moment until he spotted what he was searching for. A small window above the backdoor entrance cast a golden glow as the light from the other side shown through. Creeping up to the glass, Murray picked up a small pebble and tossed it into the window. The rock zipped through the window like a gun shot and the sound of chairs scraping against wood floor as some people hurriedly stood up and burst out of the door.

Murray took his cover behind the dumpster with Sly and watched as a rhino, a grizzly bear, a German Shepard, and a rat stood with flashlights cutting through the darkness and revolvers drawn. "Must be hooligans, those bloody spiky haired punks never give us a moment's peace," the Shepard said with a British accent, Sly was rather caught off guard to see a German native speak in such a way. The dog pulled on the brim of his hat as he pulled it back down on his head.

"Proly' jus that, damned rock knocked me in the ead', Bruce, Felix, stay and watch the door." the grizzly bear rubbed a tender spot on his head as he shrugged and went back inside. The Shepard did the same, leaving the rhino and rat standing outside.

"Shit, I needa smoke, I'll be right back." The rat walked back inside, grumbling to himself as he glanced behind him to see if his tail wasn't in the doorway. Murray cracked his knuckles as he saw the rhino all by himself, what luck too, Murray could easily pass for a rhino. He snuck behind the large grey animal and tapped him on the shoulder. The rhino turned around only for his face to meet Murray's gloved fist and he dragged the limp body behind the dumpster.

A few minutes later, the rat returned with a smoking cigarette clamped in his mouth as he looked for a trace of his partner. "Mort, you there, speak up I can't find you."

"Uh, ahem, yeah, I'm right here." Murray, now clad in the rhino's cloths stepped out of the shadows and walked up to the rat.

"Ah, good, thought something got you, can't be too careful you know." The rat scratched his head and nibbled on the end of his cigarette. Murray kept the brim of his hat to bend over his face; he may have had the body structure of a rhino, but in no place on Earth was a rhino pink. Murray glanced behind him, Sly waited patiently for Murray to make his move.

"Uh, hey, I think I saw something over there by the fence!" Murray pointed his finger towards the chain link fence that ringed around the building. The rodent padded towards where Murray pointed, the hippo pretending to follow behind him by softly tapping his feet on the ground. He gestured for Sly to come out of hiding and the raccoon slipped from the shadows. Murray opened the door with the key ring that hung around his belt and Sly slipped inside, giving off about as much noise as a falling leaf.

As Sly stepped inside, he hid behind a few crates that were marked as flammable. Seeing the German Shepard and the bear sitting at a round wooden table that was dotted with playing cards and beer bottles, Sly pulled out his binoc-u-com and opened a line to Bentley. "I'm inside the warehouse; Murray's guarding the front door with his new best friend."

"Good work," Bentley's green face came up on screen, he looked down at something that was off screen before returning his gaze back to the screen. "Alright, Murray's done his part, now it's your turn. You need to find a gunsmith uniform and follow Edmond around. Any information you hear, relay back to us here at the safe house."

"Got it," Sly nodded as he replaced his binoc-u-com into its holster. Creeping past the two inebriated guards, the raccoon hooked his cane onto the collar of one of the jumpsuits that hung over his head on a hook bolted to the wall. Worming his way into the orange and black suit, he pulled the zipper up to his neck and stuffed his hat into the suit as he replaced it with the orange cap, the brim reaching out to cast his brown eyes into shadow. He placed his cane up into a vent shaft on the ceiling along with his gloves and boots. He walked upright instead of his usual posture of leaning lower to the ground with bent knees as he wasn't sneaking about.

He was just another smith worker in this warehouse and aside from a few questioning stares from other workers, he blended in completely. "I will be in my office overseeing the operations, make sure everyone is doing their job and check in with me every hour." The rich British accent caught the raccoon's attention as he turned around. Edmond Nelson was busy with a short iguana, pointing out directions and establishing orders to the reptile until he spun around and headed towards his office. Sly followed the canine with his eyes until his feet began to step towards the dingo.

"Um, excuse me, sir, if I could have a moment." Nelson turned around to look at the raccoon, bringing his brows together in a subtle leer.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Well, I've just got transferred here. My superiors didn't tell me much so I was hoping you would." Sly kept his gaze low as the brim of his hat hid the majority of his face. Nelson scratched his chin and gestured for the raccoon to follow.

"We will discuss this in my office, the paperwork is in there. I suggest you read it thoroughly." Sly grinned under the brim of his hat as Edmond led him to his office. The large glass windows opened up to the entire area of operation, the dingo opened up his desk drawer and slapped a thick file of papers down, sliding them to Sly. He also pulled out a large whisky bottle and poured himself a glass, turning in his chair to stare out of his windows. "This is your bible, you will read it, memorize it, and follow its words. Do you understand what I am saying, yankee?"

Nelson had established Sly for an American on account of his accent. The raccoon chuckled as he began looking at the papers in mock interest. While the dingo was turned, Sly slipped out his binoc-u-com and snapped a few photos of the paperwork and sent them to Bentley. Turning around in his chair, the dingo filled his glass again, glancing up to see Sly hurriedly shoving something in his pocket. Nelson quirked an eyebrow but shrugged as the whisky began taking effect.

"Care for a drink?" Edmond pulled out another glass and filled it for Sly. The raccoon wasn't one for hard alcohol, but he thought for a moment and the friendly social drinking would probably work to his advantage. "You yank's like whisky don't you? Just like back in cowboy days." His speech was beginning to slur as Sly pretended to slam back glass after glass along with Edmond. The dingo began talking after about five glasses.

He talked to Sly mostly about personal problems, the raccoon swayed from left to right as he appeared deeply inebriated. "A-and then he tellsh me, he tellsh me now, that you can't even manage it, a job like this...hic! Well, I really don't give a world in a care if he thinks otherwise...hic!" Sly erupted in a fit of laughter as he attempted to fill his glass, instead missing the glass and pouring the amber liquid on the table. He then clutched his empty glass and gulped down the non-existent liquid within it.

"Sho, sho you're telling me that this guy...ulp! This guy told you that you couldn't do it, and you're here right now kickin' ass, I mean looka this place. It could be really happinin' ya know. Yeah, maybe a few more breaks a few more bottles now and then. And hell, that would be a good spot for one of those dancer girls...hic!"

"You're probably wondering...hic," the dingo slumped down on his desk as he laughed again, gulping down air like a fish as he finally stopped, only for him to erupt in giggles for a second time. "You're wondering, why would an MI6...hic, an MI6 would be doing here, well I'll tell you dammit, I'll tell you."

"Nah, nah,"

"No, no, I'm gonna tell ya. You need to know cause you're my buddy, right? Right," Nelson wrapped an arm around the raccoon's shoulder and whispered close. "Its cause my boss, he's got this big plan see, he's gonna rebuild that ol' uh, what's its face, Clockwock or somethin'. He wants the weapons here to go to there so he can send his buddies down to there so that they can't come up here to get over there or else everything will go strait to there!" He pointed a clawed finger to the ground as if to explain that "there" was to signify hell.

He laughed again and gave off another hiccup as he continued. "The big guy, the main man mean man, big hot shot of the whole thing is payin' us a fortune to do this. He's got these weapons for his big plans for when he gets the Clockwock back up and running again...hic!"

"That's interesting," Sly said as he reverted back to his normal speaking voice, "And what is the boss going to do when he gets 'Clockwock' back up and running again?"

"Hehe, well...hic, since you're a good guy I guess I tell ya." He leaned in closer and looked around to see if anyone was watching. Then stifling a chuckle that bubbled up in his throat, he told him. "Clockwock's gonna go down into the ocean, see," the dingo was using his paws to explain to the raccoon what was going to happen. He used one of his fingers and he drove it down onto his palm to interpret Clockwork diving down into the ocean. "And then he's gonna swim, swim, swim like a little fish, and then he's gonna catch the big catch and pull it back up to the surface."

Sly was about to ask what the "big catch" was going to be, but the dingo slumped forward as he passed out. Sly pushed the limp body off of him and watched as the dingo curled up in a ball on the floor, wrapping his fingers around the empty whisky bottle as if it were a precious treasure. Sly shook his head with a grin, "He is not going to be happy when he wakes up in the morning." Bringing out his binoc-u-com, Sly opened up a line to Bentley. "Did you get all that?"

"Clear as crystal, it seems they need these weapons so they can continue to do their operation unhindered from opposing organizations. And your hunch was correct, they were going to rebuild Clockwork, but why they would do that I haven't a clue."

"He said something about using Clockwork to retrieve something deep in the ocean."

"Hmm, that could be it; Clockwork's body would be durable enough to dive down into the ocean very deep. Whatever they are looking for, it's going to be very big and very deep in the ocean if they need Clockwork to get it." Bentley paused, bringing a hand to his chin in puzzlement. "You didn't happen to get the location of which ocean did you?"

"No," Sly shook his head, "He passed out before I could learn anything else."

"Very well, come on back to the hideout and we will get started on day two of the operation." Bentley cut the line, causing the screen to go black after the static dissipated. Sly shoved his binoc-u-com into his holster and slipped out the back door. He stopped to grab the things he left inside the vent shaft and he whistled for Murray. As they ran past the dumpster on the side of the building, Murray heard a grunt from the rhino as he began to regain consciousness.

Murray brought down one of his fists like a sledge hammer onto the rhino's head, rendering him unconscious once more and he hurried over to catch up with Sly.

* * *

A screech caused his eyes to tear open. Fox Hunter stretched and hurried up to the window of his vantage point. He saw a red Ford Mustang pull up to the side of the apartment complex and the passenger side door swung ajar. A curvaceous vixen with red and orange fur stepped out and closed the door, leaning down to the window to bid her driver goodbye. Fox Hunter licked his lips as he watched the female swaying her hips as she moved to the building's main door.

He rubbed one of his fangs with the tip of his tongue as his eyes followed the fox into her apartment, glimpsing her pulling off her jacket and hanging it up on the hook by her door through her window. She collapsed onto the bed, burying her face into the mattress and trying to unbuckle her boots. "Well, I get a show out of this after all," Fox Hunter chuckled as he contemplated whether or not to take out the female when she was fully unclothed, "Lucky me." He placed the stock of his rifle to his shoulder as it rested on the tripod, peering through the lens of the scope until the crosshairs lined up perfectly on the fox's head. "It could be so easy," he said to himself as his heart began to quicken, "But it is too easy."

He detached the rifle from the tripod and began dismantling it and replacing every piece into his duffle bag with extra care. Once every piece was stored, he pulled out a Jericho 941 F handgun, attaching a suppressor to it and shoving it into his coat pocket. He would have taken out his Desert Eagle, but he had to be quiet, and a fifty caliber handgun was anything but quiet. He then reached into his jeans pocket and flipped out what appeared to be a shining silver handle, but a with a few quick flicks of his wrist, a three inch hidden blade flicked out of the handle and gleamed in the moonlight. He smiled at his own reflection in the butterfly knife's blade before flicking it back into the handle and replacing it in his back pocket.

"My dear Carmelita," he said to himself as he stepped out of the construction site, feeling the weight of his gun slapping against his chest with every step he took, "This is surely be a night for you to remember."

* * *

Carmelita felt the soft fibers of her bed against her face; she had almost no energy as she kicked off her boots and wiggled her toes freely. She closed her eyes and let the air from her lungs hiss out of her nostrils, the heat from her breath warming the spot of blanket that was by her mouth. The fox crawled farther up to the bed and buried her face into the brand new pillow to replace the old one, wrapping her arms around it and placing her paws underneath it. She inhaled to smell the fresh fibers. Sly's scent wasn't present on the pillow like her last one was and it caused her heart to sink.

She sighed at the memories when they did use to share a bed together, those were better times then now, now when she came home to an empty apartment, tired and stressed out of her mind. Her ears perked up to a soft clicking noise that came from her slowly turning doorknob. Carmelita reached under her mattress for the pistol she stored under it and thumbed back the hammer. As the door clicked, it swung open and two silenced shots whistled out and struck the mattress, she rolled off it and took cover behind it. "Quite a quick one you are, I may have to actually put in some effort."

Her ears flattened as she heard the deep Russian heavy accent of her opponent. The vixen lowered herself onto the floor and peered under the bed to see a pair of black leather feet on the other side. She aimed and fired a shot into the left foot, only to see the bullet smash against the surface of the boot and ricochet up to add another hole to her mattress. A piece of the black leather was torn away to reveal the smooth silver surface of steel plating on the end of his foot. A chuckle on the other side made her spring up onto the mattress as a few rounds fired off from beneath her bed.

Delivering a kick to the assassin's face as he glanced up, he withdrew back a few steps from the force of the fox's heel connecting to the side of his face. Carmelita flipped the bed over to knock the large canine's arm back as he aimed for her with his silenced pistol. She swung around to knock the pistol from his paw with another good kick and it clattered across the floor. As the vixen swung around again, her ankle was caught by his large paw and she was flung into her kitchen where she landed on the white tiled floor. Quickly springing up, Carmelita raised her fists and hopped up and down on the tips of her clawed feet.

"Not so tough without a gun are you, asshole?" Carmelita rolled her shoulders and bared her teeth as she lightly hopped up and down on her feet. The Wolfdog chuckled and pulled out the butterfly knife in his pocket, flicking it around in his paw for a moment as the blade sprang out and gleamed in the light that poured from the window.

"My dear lady, I don't need a gun. You should be more concerned for your own well being instead of my armament situation."

* * *

The television's dim glow in the dark apartment room cast it in a bluish, otherworldly glow. The leopard couple that took residence in the apartment room underneath Miss Carmelita Fox's was busy watching the news about reoccurring gang violence in the past few days. A sudden crash from above their heads caused the two felines to both glance up at the ceiling. "Good lord, what was that?" The male leopard stood up and glanced at the ceiling above them.

"Hope you like it rough!" The deep masculine shout that came from the ceiling caused the leopard to stare at his wife in confusion.

"Rough, I'll show you rough!" Carmelita's voice followed after the deep male sounding voice ended. Another crash followed and the female leopard glanced up at the ceiling as well.

"Good heavens that sounded like Miss Fox."

"What the hell is going on up there?" Another crash, then Carmelita grunted and shouted along with the male voice.

"Come now, sweetheart, I'll be gentle," the deep Russian accented voice spoke out. The couple glanced at one another with raised eyebrows.

"Sounds like Miss Fox is having quite a time up there," the male leopard chuckled. Another crash caused the two felines to jump as a shout followed by a feminine grunt came from above their heads.

"C'mon, give me what you got, hot shot!" Carmelita gave off a coaxing tone in her voice as the two leopards heard a growl emit from the Russian male voice.

"I haven't even broken a sweat yet, darling."

The two leopards continued to stare upwards at the violent and slightly intimate words emitted from the ceiling above them from where Carmelita's apartment room was located.

* * *

The Wolfdog leapt towards the fox as she sprinted out of the way, causing him to pounce onto the tiled floor of Carmelita's kitchen. She clutched his collar and shoved his head into the refrigerator, clasping the door and attempting to shut it on his head. The canine grabbed the side of the door and reared his head back to knock it against her nose, sending her reeling back. He wiped the blood from his own nose and probed a sore spot in his mouth until a tooth popped loose and he spat it out. He grabbed the butterfly knife that was on the kitchen floor and flicked open the blade again as he neared the vixen that experienced shellshock from the blow she took to the nose.

He popped the vertebra in his neck and brought down the blade in a stabbing motion towards Carmelita. She leaned back and balanced her body on her paws as she shot up both feet to catch the wolf hybrid in the face. Flipping back up onto her feet, Carmelita leaned against the wall as a wave of dizziness made her stumble, her nose throbbing in pain. She watched as the Wolfdog slowly stood up, her window just inches away from him. The fox sprinted towards him and jumped into the air, stretching out both her feet as her heels caught the canine in the chest and shoved him out of the window.

Dropping to the floor, she heard a hard thump as a body met the cement of the sidewalk. Staggering up, she limped to the window and saw only a small dark spot on the sidewalk. The body of the assassin was gone, causing her to bare her teeth as she limped over to her kitchen phone and dialed for the ambulance. Clearing her throat and regaining her breath, she spoke calmly and properly as if she had not just been in an all out brawl with a knife wielding psycho. "Yes, could you get me an ambulance to arrive at room two, four, four at Les Halles, and Etienne-Marcel apartment building? Thank you." She clamped the phone onto the receiver bolted to the wall and crashed onto her bed again.

Hearing the sirens blaring down the street, she brought a paw to her face and rubbed the area around her eyes as she sighed.

* * *

_Author's Note: Ta-daa, I did it. After a few sessions of bashing my head against the wall, I was finally able to get something to write about on this chapter...and a few aspirins afterwards of course. Took me a bit longer then normal but I got it out for your reading pleasure. Hope this chapter will help you cope with the Sunday evening blues. That weekend sure blew by fast, didn't it? _


	6. Can't Get Much Worse

**Chapter 6**

**Can't Get Much Worse**

* * *

_**T**__he door swings open, screeching on its hinges as the knob slams into the wall. The night casts the inside of the building into shadow, outside of the window it is pure black as coal and tar. Not one light, only the glowing reflection of the moon gives the surroundings a dim bluish glow. Sly bolts through the door and vaults over a table with a few chairs that are over turned, a winded pursuer panting and sucking in air as they chase after the agile raccoon. A sudden jolt of energy shoots up the raccoon's spine, attacking his limbs and causing him to topple to the floor in a limp mass. _

_Sly attempts to stagger up, but his limbs aren't responsive. Useless pieces of meat and bone, they go limp like a boned fish and the feeling in his feet disappear along with his paws. "You slipped up," chided a cocky feminine voice, "I warned you that you would slip up one day."_

"_My darling Carmelita," Sly groaned as he felt the sole of her leather boot press onto his back, "Surely you would have mercy for me; I am after all completely helpless." She didn't buy it; she placed the tip of her foot under him and flipped him over so that he lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling from his spot on the carpet. He cracked a grin as he looked up at her, flashing that charming look in his eyes so that it would cause her to catch off balance. _

"_Enough Cooper," she snapped as she slapped a pair of handcuffs to her own wrist and clicked the remaining circle onto his own wrist. "You won't be running away that easily this time, I've got you right where I want you, criminal."_

"_Why Miss Fox, if the situation weren't so serious, I'd say you were coming onto me."_

"_Shut up, enough tricks." The raccoon placed his paws up into the air as a mock surrender._

"_No tricks, sweetheart, I'm just stating my own opinion." He inched a little closer, the handcuffs rattling as he moved. "So, what will you be doing now, Miss Fox?"_

"_I'll tell you one thing," she shoved the barrel of her shock pistol so that it pushed against the tip of Sly's nose, "If you keep trying to confuse me with your words again, you'll be sucking in air through a new nose hole, understand?" She lowered the barrel of her pistol and dropped it so that it clattered to the floor. Sly quirked a brow at this and opened his mouth to question her actions._

"_Carmelita, you need to-_

_His words were cut off as the red fox mashed her lips against his in a fierce and fiery kiss. The raccoon's eyes grew large as goose bumps trailed up his spine, feeling the claws of the red fox dig into his back. Pushing her lips so hard against his that it caused him to topple backwards, falling onto his back on the carpet of the room, the circulation in his limbs returned and he moved his arms to wrap around her body and rub up and down her back in a loving manner. Carmelita pulled away from his lips with a loud smack and stared at him lying on the floor with her on top of him._

"_Why do you do these things to me?" Her question only made the raccoon slowly shake his head._

"_Because I love you," was all he said, it seemed to be the only thing worth saying as she slowly pulled on his sweater, slipping it off of him as the handcuffs stopped the sweater from coming all the way off. The blue fabric remained on one of his arms as Sly slowly unzipped the front of the fox's halter top. Her chest heaved in anticipation as she rubbed her nose into the fur of his neck and deeply inhaled, she leaned against his body and he slowly fell onto the floor and lay on his back and she continued to climb over him. "You sure know how to take care of your criminals, Miss Fox."_

"_Shut up," she growled as she continued to kiss and grope him. Carmelita grasped the raccoon's wrists and pinned them to the floor above his head, leaning over him and staring down with a rather wicked looking grin to spread across her lips. He leapt up, brushing his lips against hers and she dove for him again, their tails curling around one another to clasp each other as they both did. A door swung open, slamming against the wall and startling the two mates to separate from one another. A group of four shadowy blobs poured from the doorway and grasped both Carmelita and Sly, slamming them up against the wall and separating their handcuffs. _

_Sly had his arms pulled back behind him as he was slammed up against a corner, watching through the corner of his eye at the wide eyed Carmelita that was pushed up against the wall, suspended three feet from the floor. Silence now, only the deep panicky breathing of the two lovers could be heard, that is until the raccoon's ears perked up to the soft clicking of feet slapping against wood floors. The ghastly shadow that held onto Sly turned the raccoon around so that he could see a heavily shadowed form enter the room. "Mr. Cooper," the wraith spoke, a very eloquent sounding voice that seemed to add a bit of a sinister edge, "You and your mate have caused me quite a bit of trouble these past few weeks. I'm afraid I cannot allow this to continue."_

"_Don't you dare touch her!" Cooper's eyes burned as he shouted and squirmed under the strength of the large shadow's muscular grip. _

"_My friend, you are in no position to be announcing orders to me and my assistants that are present in this fine rural establishment that you and your lover have chosen to become one with another. Especially if said orders are in conflict with my current plans of action." Sly's heart climbed up into his throat and his stomach iced over as he saw the reflective gleam of a sliver edge slide out of the darkness and into the smooth talking wraith's paw. He glided towards the shaking Carmelita, brushing his fingers gently over the exposed body of the red fox. "You certainly have an exquisite taste in the female creature, Mr. Cooper. It is almost nauseatingly painful that she must be silenced in the permanent manner."_

"_You son of a bitch, you take your paws off her!" _

"_Such vulgar remarks, cursing me will not make light of your situation so if you would please refrain from speaking such poison I would greatly appreciate your understanding."_

"_Go to hell, you slime ball!"_

"_Tsk, tsk, some people simply cannot be reached," the wraith traced the tip of the blade down the gap in-between the fox's breasts until it rested below her belly button. The cold steel caused her to stiffen and bare her fangs. She jerked her fist to claw at the shaded face, yet the crushing grip of the larger shadows had her pinned to the wall with no chance of escape._

"_If I could get my paws on you, you puss spewing creep, you'd beg for me to send you screaming into hell after I'm done with you. You interrupted something very important, you should know that was a big mistake."_

"_My dear," he sneered, his voice oozing out like syrup from the bottle, "The truth is you cannot do anything to me or my assistants present here, and I do apologize for interrupting you and your mate from your friendly activities, but I want this finished quickly." Everything froze, Sly's heart ceased beating like a jackhammer as he watched the gleaming blade disappear into the flesh of Carmelita's chest. The fox jerked and squealed as the blade pierced her body and her head hung forward, she went limp as the shadows released her and she crumpled to the floor in a small pile on the carpet. Sly was rigid as stone, everything froze, his heart was chiseled from stone. _

"_C-Carmelita..."_

"_Is no longer among this plain of existence I'm afraid. Please, allow me to help you meet her again in the after life."_

_He did nothing as he continued to watch the limp body of his love, a small dark puddle growing underneath her. The cold tip of the knife made his skin crawl as it pierced his flesh and slowly pushed its way into his body. He didn't squirm, he didn't move a muscle, he just allowed the blade to enter his body and feel the icy pain as it stabbed into him._

* * *

Sly bolted up from the mattress, sheets flung off of the bed as the raccoon screamed and dug his claws into the bed, tearing away at the worn fabric. Sweat came down like small waterfalls as it matted his fur and made him glisten in the rising sun's rays. His pupils were almost non existent on his eye as they shrunk to microscopic size, causing his vision to shift and blur until it refocused. He felt his chest, patting down his body to see that there were no stab marks, no ghastly arms pinning him to the wall, and no lifeless body of his love on the floor. "Just a dream," he spoke in-between breaths, "One hell of a dream, Jesus Christ."

He stood up from the mattress, the springs creaking as he got up and headed for the bathroom. He splashed water onto his face about three times until an icy chill climbed into his stomach and he doubled over and vomited. The remains of his last meal oozed down the drain of the sink, the gruesome sight nearly made him expel more from his stomach as he turned on the faucet and washed the filth down the drain. He looked up at the mirror, dark circles developed around his eye which were still dilated to pinholes. "What's happening to you, old friend?"

He rubbed his face with a towel and crawled back into bed, he had only been asleep for two hours since he returned from his job at the warehouse. Sleeping during the light hours were common place for him, being a nocturnal creature by nature he would be completely restless during night and be out like a light the second his head touched the pillow whenever the sun rose. He would have chuckled at the memories of when Carmelita would get frustrated with his strange sleeping schedule as she would attempt to force him to sleep during the night and rise during the morning, but the situation was anything but joyous. He curled up in a ball as he felt his body develop another icy chill and he clutched the blankets closer to his body. "What is going on," he whispered, his words muffled as he buried his muzzle into the pillow, "These nightmares, and this rotten feeling in my stomach, what does it all mean?"

* * *

"You failed me!?"

"Colonel, it was a minor flaw in my calculations, I was only-

"You were attempting to violate that woman when you could have easily used your rifle to silence her. Your degrading and vile actions to think with your nether regions instead of your brain have caused me a great deal." The shadowed face of Colonel leaned back in his chair and placed his paws onto his wood table, his claws digging into the hickory and leaving trails as he scratched the hard surface. "Control your disgusting urges, this failure has cost us both an adequate amount. Your target now knows that you hunt her, she will probably only be that much more difficult to eliminate from now on. I'm cutting your pay by half."

"What? By half?! This is madness, you can't do this."

"I may do as I please, I will not suffer for your folly."

"Do not test me, Colonel. You know what I am capable of!"

"And you know what I am capable of, or do you not recall what took place in a past time when you failed me before this campaign?" Fox Hunter glared at the screen of his computer as he reached for a section of his chest and gently rubbed it.

"Yes...I remember."

"Then we both understand one another?" The Wolfhound grumbled under his breath from clenched teeth.

"Yes..."

"I couldn't hear that, speak up."

"Yes," he growled, a little louder this time, "I understand the situation; I will make her live no more, when I have her in my sights she will fall."

"She will, or you will, Fox Hunter." The screen went black as the connection was cut, leaving the hybrid wolf to sit in the darkness as he stared at his own reflection in the dark screen of his computer.

"We will see how deep your influences go, Colonel." He would have smiled, yet the pain from his broken nose simply made him frown and scowl.

* * *

Colonel tapped his clawed fingers against each other as he leaned back in his chair. Reaching under his desk to pull open a drawer, he struck a match and brought a thick cigar to his lips. The burning tip of the tobacco filled shaft illuminated the area around his coal black eyes until they disappeared in the darkness again. "Satisfactory quality assistance is so difficult to acquire in this era," his fondness for large, elaborate words made even the smallest speech appear to drag on for minutes. Sucking back more smoke from his cigar, the burning orange tip flared brighter for a moment until he bellowed out another puff of smog.

A knock at the door made him glance up at the polished wood and he clicked a small button on his desk. A high pitched buzz emitted from the door and a hyena with a small pointed stud jutting out of his chin stepped in. He brushed back the bristling fur on his head that formed a dark brown Mohawk that trailed all the way down his back and flashed a smile in greeting, his false sliver teeth shined as it caught the light from the burning cigar's tip. "You wanted to see me, sir?" He raised a pierced eyebrow in anticipation, the sliver studs catching the light from the cigar.

"Mr. Sliver, I summoned your presence here for an assignment of the utmost urgency and importance," Colonel reached into his desk again and pulled out a sheet of paper, handing it to the hyena that clasped it into his paw.

"What is this," Sliver glanced up at the shadowed form with slight puzzlement, "Some sort of game you're playing with me?"

"No, what you have in your possession is a forged I.D. into the Paris city Hospital," Colonel took a long pull on his cigar before continuing, "This document was forged for you in order to complete fore mentioned assignment that I clearly stated was of the utmost importance."

"So you want me to pose as a doctor," the animal stated bluntly, "But I don't save people, more or less I do quite the opposite."

"Do you think I'm not already brought up to specifics on that matter?! I called you here because you are one of my own men, not some private contractor that would foolishly blunder as a certain Russian wolfhound whose name will not be mentioned at the moment." Sliver gave off a high pitched cackle that was natural for his species at the mention of Sokoloff.

"That hound, Sokoloff is a fool and unstable, he should never have been a killer, he's too impatient and impractical," he combed his clawed fingers through the streak of fur on his head, "So, why do you need me in the Hospital?"

"Mr. Silver, are you familiar with an Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox?" Colonel leaned back in his chair, the wooden seat creaking to the shift of weight. The hyena cracked a smile and nodded.

"I am aware that she has been causing problems," he skimmed through his fake files and then glanced back up at the shadowed face of the Colonel, squinting up at him through his brows. "You want me to pose as a doctor so that I can take her out in the hospital while she is recuperating from her run in with Sokoloff?"

"You are more intelligent then my associates give you credit for. Yes, that is an accurate summation; you will pose as a doctor that has transferred from California and then eliminate Carmelita Fox when she is most vulnerable in her hospital bed. I assume that you will perform more adequately then Sokoloff."

"Of course, sir," Sliver bowed low and flashed his gleaming sliver smile, "They don't call me your most successful hit man because I fail my contracts. I'll call you when she is dead, clean, clear, and simple." Sliver turned on his heel to leave, grasping the door knob and pulling the door behind him.

"Good, and don't slam the-

Sliver smashed the door against its hinges, a loud bang reverberating off the walls of the square office room.

"...door..."

* * *

"Easy, easy, you're lucky your nose isn't broken," Dorian Booker wringed out the damp cloth and continued to dab the small puddles of blood that spouted from Carmelita's nose. He arrived as soon as he could; having to tear through a few red lights and pass the speed limit, but he would hate himself for it later. "I'm getting worried about you, boss ma'am, this is the second time in a week that someone tried to kill you. Maybe we should put you in that protection-

"Don't even think about finishing that sentence, Booker." Carmelita sat up from the small white hospital bed; bandages dotted her face as her nose would occasionally break into another fit of bleeding. Dorian gently pushed her back down against the bed as he squeezed the cloth and wiped off more blood.

"Carmelita, don't be foolish, you're smarter then that. Someone wants you dead, maybe we should play it safe, I don't want to wake up in the morning and get a notice that my partner's been murdered." Carmelita opened her mouth to protest, but her statement was interrupted as Dorian dabbed at her nose again. She pushed the cloth away and huffed as she glanced out the window.

"I'm fine, Dorian, I'll be out of this hospital as soon as you can help me sign my release forums."

"Very funny, you're not going anywhere the way this nose is bleeding. I'm gonna stay here with ya until you get better. It'll be fun, like a sleep over, only I'm going to have to stay up all night to make sure you don't get a bullet in the brain. Now stay here, I'm gonna get some of that jello, you want anything?" Carmelita rolled her eyes and simply glared at him.

The ocelot took that as a way of thanks, considering that's how she usually reacted to assistance. "Oh you don't need to thank me, boss ma'am, what are partners for?" He walked out of the hospital room and made his way to the lunch area. Carmelita glanced up at the clock, it was almost six and the sun was steadily lowering in the sky, the surroundings dimming and the lights of the city glowing bright to ward off the darkness. She groaned as she rested her head against the pillow, her face felt like it had been hit by a baseball bat and her anger towards that wolfhound only seemed to make her hurt all the more.

* * *

Dorian padded down the hallway, the flaps of his long brown coat trailing behind him as it concealed his small spotted tail. Glancing up at the signs hoisted above him, he checked the arrows and words that pointed the directions of certain areas of the hospital. Grinning as he spotted which way he needed to be heading for the lunch room, he took a left on his next turn and continued to follow the signs. The door to his right suddenly swung open, bumping into him and making him stumble backwards. He shook his head and glanced up to see a hyena dressed in a doctor's coat emerge from the room.

"Oh my, I'm terribly sorry about that. Are you alright?" The hyena offered a paw and pulled Dorian off the floor. The ocelot padded his coat off for dust and smoothed out the wrinkles of his clothing.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright," Dorian cracked a slight smile as he shrugged the doctor's foolishness off and simply went on his way towards the lunch room. He pushed open the doors and clasped a tray as he slowly moved down the line, picking up cups of jello, a few juice boxes, and whatever else that looked appealing. After scrounging up what he wanted, he made his way back to Carmelita's room.

* * *

"Easy now, easy, easy," Sliver's gleaming fangs shown bright in the dimly lit room as he slowly pulled on a syringe plunger, filling the needle's tube with a blood red liquid. He tapped the needle a few times and gently squeezed to see a few drops of red spurt out of the tip. "Perfect," he whispered, "A shame I won't have time to see the poison work its magic on you, Miss Fox. I'm always fascinated on each person's different reactions, what will yours be? Foaming at the mouth, eyes rolling back into your head, or will you just convulse until your heart stops?"

He chuckled his high-pitched cackle as he danced around a bit before replacing the needle into a holster strapped to his forearm. The needle was in place, concealed under the "doctor's" sleeve. He glanced down at the limp body of a hospital security guard and cracked a smile. The uniformed official's head sagged lazily to the side from his neck being snapped in half by a pair of deadly paws. "I prefer poison, but I must admit, snapping your neck like a twig was invigorating."

Silver turned back to the door, hearing his silver brow and chin piercing jingling in his pocket. He glanced down at a card where he wrote down the important information of his assignment. "One Carmelita Montoya Fox, vixen, red fur with orange and brown undertone, blue curly hair," he quickly silenced himself as he heard footsteps pass by near the door he concealed himself behind. After the footfalls passed, he continued again. "Room number, two, twenty-three, current time is," he pushed up his left sleeve and glanced at his watch, "Seven, twenty-two, two hours and fifty-eight minutes until injection."

He stuffed the card into his pocket and stepped out of hiding as he blended into the crowd of hospital staff.

* * *

Night came once again, as did the rain. Thick droplets smacked against Sly's head, dampening his blue cap and making his clothing stick to his skin and fur. He dropped down from his perch and took shelter from the rain as he entered the building he was standing atop of. A buzzing emitted from his holster and he drew out his moist binoc-u-com, shaking off the stray droplets as he brought it to his eyes. "I'm inside; Murray should be able to let you guys inside while I took the roof entrance."

"Good, now that we're all in position," Bentley let out a sneeze and he straitened his glasses, "We can begin day two of our operation. Sly, you'll be disguised as a gunsmith again and walk amongst the other workers, keep an eye on things as me and Penelope get to work on the mainframe of the warehouse."

"Then, when we're done with our job," Penelope's face came on screen as the conversation shifted to her, "Murray will use his heavy lifting skills to sabotage the machinery used for creating the guns, with the assembly line destroyed and their mainframe disrupted, Sly will move the barrels of explosives to the forge and the heat from the magma should ignite the dynamite."

"And don't forget, Sly," Bentley warned as his green face came back on screen, "I have a few of my bombs on triggered detonation to cover ourselves incase things don't go our way. I'll inform everyone when I'm about to detonate one so make sure you check your surroundings and get to cover when one goes off."

"Alright, let's do this, I'm pumped," Murray shouted, the screen shifting to his eager face as he cracked his knuckles. Sly clicked off the binoc-u-com and slowly crept down the stairs to stand on the scaffolding above the operation. He looked down, squinting to the glow of sparks and torch flames as they flew about wherever he looked. He quickly pulled out his disguise, slipping it on in an instant as he twirled around and stopped spinning, emerging fully dressed. Strutting around the scaffolding in his new outfit, he pulled the bright orange cap over his face so as not to be noticed and he blended into the crowd, awaiting Bentley and Penelope's signal.

* * *

The turtle and mouse made their way towards one of the solitary computer consoles near one of the larger machines, the screen coming to life at Bentley's touch. "Ok, Penelope, go find the next terminal and we'll hook up to attack the database from two fronts."

"Got it," she gave a thumbs up and scurried over to the next computer station that was higher up on the scaffolding. Her shoes clinked with every step as she ran up the metal staircase, coming to a sliding halt in front of the computer screen. She pulled out her equipment and plugged a large box like apparatus into the computer. Numbers scrolled before her eyes until they stopped and revealed the computer's security code. "I'm in, ready when you are, Bentley."

"Alright...almost there and...Got it," Bentley hacked into the mainframe and the two technological geniuses began to work their magic. Most of it was standard, firewalls, spy ware, and with the two of them working together, the security systems couldn't hold a candle to their efficiency.

"Hey you, turtle, move and you're dead!" Bentley's heart climbed up his throat as he felt the cold metal of a gun barrel press against the back of his neck and he gulped as droplets of sweat appeared on his brow. The reptile moved slowly as he tapped a button under the armrest of his wheelchair, the button lighting up a bright red before taking his finger off. The hammer on the gunsmith's forty-five clicked back, causing a few more droplets of sweat to form on the turtle's brow as he raised his hands and allowed the thug to pull him back on his wheelchair. The smith swung Bentley around and shoved the cold barrel against the turtle's beak like nose and sneered.

"I'd shoot you now, but then I'd have to clean up the mess afterwards. Lets go, wheels, I think Nelson would like to see you." The smith gestured for Bentley to move forward slowly and the turtle placed his hands on the wheels of his chair, pushing them to propel his seat forward. The soft fluttering of rotating blades caught the smith's attention as he glanced up and looked in puzzlement as he saw a small helicopter hovering above him. "What in the-

His statement was cut short as the RC chopper dropped a large metal girder to fall onto the smith's head, knocking him unconscious. Bentley wiped his brow and glanced up above him to see Penelope with a small remote control in her white paws. The turtle gave a thumbs up and she returned the gesture as she went back to her computer. Bentley opened up a line to his teammate, pulling out his binoc-u-com and placing it against his small eyes. "I owe you one, Penelope; you saved my shell back there."

"Think nothing of it," she smiled and gave a wink as her image disappeared from the screen of Bentley's binoc-u-com.

* * *

"Alright, Murray, you ready for this?" Penelope signaled the pacing hippo that then began to hop up and down anxiously.

"You know it," the pink hippo wound up his fists and kicked open the door as he slammed his fist into a guard's jaw, "I've been waiting for some action all night long!" He wound up his left fist and smashed it into another guard that crept up behind him. Grabbing the guard by the ankles, he spun him around and then released the limp body into the door to the next room. Stepping into the next room, Murray's eyes lit up like a kid's at Christmas, so much large machinery, so many big heavy things, so much to destroy, so little time. Murray shot forward like a bullet; he was barely able to contain himself.

The hippo's first victim was a series of large spinning gears. His eyes shifted to a large metal girder, perfect. Grabbing the metal rod and winding it up like a bat, he took to pummeling the gears with the shaft until hurling it like a javelin into the space between the rotating gears, causing them to jam and spew showers of sparks. He pooped the vertebrae in his neck and chuckled. "I've got it all covered from here. Sly, why don't you get started with the bombs, I'll try and hurry up here but I can't help but take the time to enjoy this."

"Not a problem, pal," Sly whispered as he brought a paw to his earpiece, "I'll get started with the barrels." Sly came out of the wall he was hiding behind and casually strolled over towards the barrels brimming with TNT. Glancing to his left, then his right, he dived into the barrel and snuggled into the container as his head peaked above the edge. He slowly nudged the barrel towards the large forge, remaining stationary as a smith would occasionally walk by or glance in his direction. The wide smile never left his face as he continued to tiptoe towards his destination, the smiths completely unaware of his presence.

"Alert, everyone, we have an intruder in our midst!" The heavy British accent of Edmond Nelson thundered over the noise as he shouted as high as he could, pointing a clawed finger at the suspiciously placed barrel of TNT. It wasn't until Nelson's outburst did the smiths really begun to take notice that a barrel of explosives was sitting right in the middle of the complex away from all the others. Sly jumped from his hiding spot and stripped his body of his disguise, flipping his cane out from the loop in his belt and placing his blue cap atop his head. The smiths all began circling him, pulling out handguns or simply brandishing the tools they carried in their paws.

The soft tap of feet slapping against the concrete floor made Sly's ears swivel behind him and he whipped around to see Nelson behind him, a subtle grin curling up on his lips. "So, it was you after all. This is how you repay my hospitality when I offered you a drink? I shouldn't be surprised, you bloody yanks never seem to appreciate anything." He chuckled as he slowly pulled out a Smith & Wesson model 686 revolver from under the folds of his button up shirt. Sly quirked a brow at the American made gun and what A British local would be doing with one such as that, but witnessing the gun being pointed at him quickly made his thoughts shift to a more pressing subject.

He clicked back the hammer, causing the cylinder to turn slightly and click as a magnum slug was loaded into the chamber. Nelson then clicked the hammer forward and placed the gun into his belt, chuckling and shrugging his shoulders. "Well it wouldn't be very sportsmen like to simply shoot you in the head and be done with. My boys here have been working hard for quite awhile, and what kind of person would I be if I denied them the pleasure of bashing your brains in with a wrench. Gentlemen, dispose of the raccoon."

The dingo pulled out a small flask and took a pull from the silver container. As he pulled the flask from his lips, he tilted it so that a trickle of the liquid splattered onto the floor, leaving a dark, damp spot on the floor. "For you when you reach the afterlife, goodbye Mr.-"

"Cooper, Sly Cooper," the raccoon spoke, doing his best impersonation of Sean Connery's James Bond. Nelson was not amused by the thief's display of humor and he snorted as he turned to leave, leaving his men to slowly circle around the raccoon. This was bad, he counted at least thirteen, armed with lord knows what. Ranging from small firearms to honest to god hand cannons, a few workers even brandished wrenches and screwdrivers. "Well," he sighed as he glanced around him, seeing more thugs close in behind him and on his sides, "At least it can't get much worse."


	7. It Gets Worse

**Chapter 7**

**It Gets Worse**

* * *

_Alright, Allan Pike, you guessed it as I'm sure everyone else did. Yes it does in fact get worse._

* * *

**T**he door creaks ever so slowly on its hinges, a small sliver of light from the outside floods into the dark room. Carmelita Fox lie asleep, small bandages dot her arms and forehead as her head rests against a fluffy white pillow. A shadowed figure quietly steps inside the small hospital room, turning to close the door very gently until he nervously flinches as the door gives off a subtle click. He hangs his long coat on the hook by the door and tiptoes towards the slumbering vixen, her chest rising and falling with her rhythmic breathing. "Good, you're asleep," the masculine voice whispered, glancing out the window to his left, "Rest now."

Dorian pulls up a chair and plants himself into it as he rests his head against the wall of the corner he sat by. He kept his gaze locked with the fox, keeping his promise that he would watch over his recovering partner for the entire evening. He glanced at his watch, pushing up his sleeve his eyes widened as he glances at the time displayed on the watch's sliver and black face. "Only nine-twelve, I'm gonna be up for nine more hours?!" He smacked his forehead with his spotted paw and slumped down in his chair as he moved his fingers apart to look at the sleeping Carmelita through the gap of his fingers.

"You owe me big time, boss ma'am." He crossed his arms and continued to watch as hour after hour ticked off of his watch. The constant ticking was beginning to annoy him as it was the only noise in the room followed by the hypnotic breathing of his partner. A few hours into the night and Dorian notices that his eyelids begin to fall. He shakes himself and pulls his eyes open to their fullest as he locks them back onto the hospital bed.

A few more minutes go by and his eyes begin to close again, causing him to slap himself across the face to fight off the grogginess. Dorian glances at his watch, only two hours and already he's feeling the effects of sleep depravation. The ocelot wags his head back and forth, his ears flapping against his head and he blinks his eyes a few times. "Need to stay awake, can't...go to...sleep." He erupts into a yawn and his eyes fill up with moisture.

Carmelita's comforting breathing wasn't assisting in the slightest, Dorian soon became entranced by the sound as he slowly closed his eyes and his head leaned against the wall. His chest rose and fell as his breathing came in tune with his partners. He sighed and wriggled into his chair to get more comfortable as his arms uncurled and fell limp to his sides. Another hour or so and the door creaks open, slowly revealing a sliver of light to shine through until the door closes again. The silent footsteps of the visitor creep towards the bed and watch the slumbering female for a moment.

"Such beauty," Sliver whispers, "why couldn't it be one of the ugly female cops, lord knows there's plenty to spare." The hyena continues to whisper, occasionally glancing at the snoring ocelot sitting in the corner. He flashes his gleaming silver teeth as he reaches under his sleeve and pulls out the sinister needle that was filled with a blood red liquid. He places the needle into his fingers and slowly brings the tip to close in on the fox's neck. His eyes go large as he feels a violent vibration in his pocket as it emits a low pitched buzzing noise.

He quickly pulls back the needle and smothers the vibrating cell phone, placing the needle on the counter and fishing out the device from his coat pocket. Flipping open the phone, he glances at the number displayed and clicks the device on. "Hello, Colonel," he whispers through clenched teeth, "To what do I owe this most heart attack inducing of phone calls?"

"Silver, I require a status report from you; it has been approximately four hours since your last call."

"Well, I'm standing over the target right now."

"What is her condition?"

"The little angel's sleeping, along with her bodyguard. Shall I deal with him as well? I believe I have enough "medicine" for the both of them." There was a pause before Colonel responded, giving Sliver time to move away from the bed into a corner so that the sound of his conversation would not rouse the two officers from waking up.

"No, Silver, I only want the female dead. Killing a police officer is tricky business, especially one as successful as either one of them. In the morning her partner will awake to see that Carmelita Fox has been assassinated, you will be far away by then. Take the needle and your cloths to our agreed upon meeting area and I will have my men dispose of them."

"Shall I leave the card on her corpse as your other hit men are so accustomed of doing so?"

"Yes, I wish for her partner to know that her constant snooping had ultimately led to her own downfall."

"I shall do it with the utmost discretion and precision that you know you can trust me with, sir."

"Good, I will call you in an hour. By then you should be on your way to the meeting area." The line ended, leaving Silver to flip the phone shut as he moved his irises towards the slumbering vixen and crept to the fox's bedside once more.

"No more interruptions, for the love of God." He clutched the needle into his fingers and slowly closed the gap between the menacing tip that dripped with red moisture and the red fur and flesh of Carmelita's neck.

* * *

Can't get much worse, thirteen of them, armed to the teeth, closing in on him like a hungry pack of wolves after a lamb. Sly was outmanned, outgunned, and his room for thinking was beginning to shrink. His grip on the shaft of his cane tightened as he darted his brown irises from left to right, glancing over his shoulder and then coming back to face forward. His ears twitched to the chuckling and angry rumbling of the smith workers as they closed in on him. Sly looked down the list of his memory, something in the Thevious Raccoonus had to be of some usefulness, just one thing that could help him.

He would get down on one knee and pray for that single miracle if the situation were not so tense at the moment. A thought came to mind like a light clicking on, he had not used this technique in quite some time he almost completely forgot about it. The raccoon shifted his feet, balanced his weight more evenly, and relaxed every muscle group in his body as he took a deep breath and let it slowly hiss out of his nostrils. Time slowed to a snail crawl, only his own breathing could be heard as he slowly moved. Though his movements were slowed, his cunning and perception increased nearly tenfold as his ear flickered to hear a slow click to his left.

He glanced to see the barrel of a magnum pointed squarely at his head, the hammer clicking back and the cylinder chamber turning as it loaded a slug into the firing position. Sly ducked as an explosion of fire and light erupted from the gun's end and the bullet flew slowly out of the barrel and whizzed right over his head. Glancing up from his crouched position, he could see the bullet float by as it embedded itself into the worker's chest that stood to the raccoon's right flack. The bullet came so fast that it took the smith's face to contort into an expression of pain and shock a full five seconds after the bullet punched a hole into him.

He vaulted upwards as more flashes erupted and bullets zoomed and flew around in different directions. He somersaulted in midair as a bullet just missed him and flew over his chest, smacking against a hanging ceiling light and shattering the glass as it slowly rained down like glimmering snowflakes. The raccoon spun around in the air, dodging a few more magnum slugs before landing on one of the smith's shoulders. Shoving his hard hat over his eyes, the blinded worker was caught off guard as the slowed time only allowed him to flail his arms around for a second before he was ripped apart by more bullets that were intended for Sly. The master thief landed on both feet and leaned back so that both his feet and paws were on the floor, bullets passing above him and through the gap of his arms and legs.

Back flipping, he vaulted up into the air again and landed out of the circle of the remaining smiths. He counted as they slowly turned around to follow his lightning quick reflexes. Nine remained, four with hand guns, two with magnums, and three with wrenches. One of the wrench wielding thugs tossed his weapon, sending the heavy metal tool to spin slowly towards the raccoon, only for the grey animal to lean out of the projectiles path. Catching the wrench with the hook of his cane, Sly twirled the shaft around and flung the tool right back at the worker, the bright red wrench slammed into the thugs face as it cracked his yellow hard hat into two halves.

Brandishing the broad side of his cane, he shielded himself from the oncoming bullets; occasionally one would ricochet off of the cane's golden tip and plunge into a worker's chest. The _twang _from the cane as a bullet smacked against it made the raccoon's ears twitch and the shock from the bullet's force traveled down the wood pole and into his arms. Five more to go, one magnum and two with wrenches and handguns, Sly glanced above him to see that Edmond watched the entire spectacle from the windows of his office. The window was spider webbed with cracks as stray bullet holes dotted the window; the dingo appeared unfazed as another bullet smacked into the glass. The raccoon tried his luck as another bullet came by; he reached for the small metal object and wrapped his fingers around it, slightly flinging back as the force from the bullet pulled on his arm.

He uncurled his fingers and saw the lead projectile comfortably lying in his gloved palm. The metal was warm and slightly heavier as the force from the bullet had not yet died down from being flown forward. He dropped the bullet to the floor, watching it slowly bounce against the concrete surface and looking up to see the stunned faces of the thugs. Time came back to normal pace as the smiths watched with disbelief as they witnessed the raccoon pluck a bullet from midair. To their eyes, it looked as if time had not slowed down so they were all the more impressed with the raccoon's speed then Sly himself.

Sly lifted up his paw and extended his fingers, curling them back towards him to gesture for the smiths to "bring it on" in the famous Bruce Lee hand gesture. The smiths all glanced at one another and dropped their weapons as they scurried away, not wanting to become yet another body on the floor. Sly glanced around somewhat saddened that he caused these people's lives to end. He didn't stay sad for too long as he came to conclusion that these people had actually sealed their own fate, Sly didn't even lift a finger to their deaths. "Well, guess that's that."

The raccoon rubbed his paws together and fanned his face with his blue cap as he turned to leave. He froze as he heard a mechanical clicking noise behind him and he slowly raised his arms. "Unfortunately it's far from over, yankee."

Ok, so maybe there was a little room left for getting worse.

* * *

"Alright, another day another destroyed piece of machinery," Murray shouted as he tossed a large metal girder into one of the rotating cogs, "I love this job!"

"Enjoy it while it lasts, big guy." The voice from behind the hippo caused him to quickly whip around and come face to face with a gun barrel. "Nothing funny now," sneered the green chameleon, "We don't need no one acting stupid here, else I'd have to paint the walls a nice shade of pink." Murray raised his hands above his head and sighed.

"Dang, right when I was getting all fired up too." Murray then grabbed the barrel of the gun and tore it from the reptile's hands. He took both ends of the gun and bent the barrel until it pointed back in the direction of the handle and trigger. "Sorry to break your toy, I guess I'm just clumsy like that." He cracked his knuckles and listened to the stretching of his leather gloves as he curled his fingers up into fists.

The chameleon chuckled as he slowly stepped away and melted into the surroundings, becoming completely concealed to the hippo's eyes. "Hope those goggles of yours can help you see me, otherwise, you're already dead, butter ball."

"Hey, was that a fat joke?" Murray wildly swung around, hitting nothing but air as the reptile continued to chuckle and cackle. He tried to focus on the laughing but it sounded as if the voice was coming from almost every angle. Suddenly, Murray whipped his head back as he felt a force knock right under his chin. The chameleon shifted back into sight as he delivered an uppercut to the hippo.

The green reptile had shed his shirt, hat, and gloves while his pants were a gun metal grey color, perfectly blending in with his surroundings. He rolled his shoulders and quickly disappeared as Murray lunged for the reptile, intent on tackling the little Houdini but only landing on concrete floors with nothing in his grip. Murray heard the thumping of boot heels on the floor and he quickly swung his arm out to clothesline the chameleon in the neck. The reptile molded back into his natural green color as he slid on the floor from the inertia, looking up from the flat of his back as he saw Murray stand over him.

He gasped and molded back into the grey colors of the room as he disappeared again. Murray slammed his fist into the concrete, cracking the surface and springing back up as the wind was knocked out of him by the chameleon swinging his booted foot into the hippo's gut, only for the reptile to swing around on his heel and follow up with another kick to Murray's jaw. He melted back into the grey surroundings and chuckled as the glowing yellow from his eyes remained for a moment after his body disappeared. Murray picked himself off the floor and shook his head to fight off the grogginess as he spat out a small glob of blood.

Winding up his fists, a gleaming object to the left of him caught the corner of his eye. His eyes widened as he saw the gleaming blade of a knife floating in midair quickly move towards him. "Hope all that fat can stop me driving this through your chest," the reptile's disembodied voice chided, "Let's find out shall we?"

"Again with the fat jokes," Murray sighed. He flexed his arms, showing off the massive muscles of his shoulders and biceps, "No fat here as far as I'm concerned, you little cheater! C'mon, The Murray will crush any foe seen or unseen!"

* * *

Bentley rapped his fingers against the keyboard, the high pitched clicks reverberating in his eardrums as the dull glow of the computer screen flooded into his glasses. A subtle static discharge pushed into his hearing followed by a soft feminine voice. "Uh, Bentley, I think we've got a problem here." The voice of Penelope came into the turtle's headphones that were built into his helmet and he placed a finger to the speaker in the side of his headgear.

"Are you sure, everything seems fine on my end?"

"Uh, well, nothing's wrong with the computers as far as I'm concerned," Bentley turned around as it sounded that Penelope was speaking behind him. His eyes widened as he saw the small mouse standing there with a gun pressed to the side of her head by a large German Shepard with a few white bandages on his face and wrapped around his left wrist. "B-Bentley..."

"Step away from the computer now." The dog's command was complied as Bentley raised his hands and wheeled away from the terminal. The canine pushed the gun against Penelope's head a bit harder, causing her to nervously flinch. "Now," the dog sneered as his eyes widened to make him appear more intimidating and serious, "Give me what you and your darling here uploaded from our data files." Bentley slowly reached into his pack and pulled out the small metal cube that Penelope had handed to him after she had finished uploading the information from her computer console.

He hesitated as he offered the cube. The dog clicked back the hammer and made Penelope gasp as she heard the click and the bullet sliding into the chamber. "Hand it over, turtle, I'll give you to three!"

"Alright, alright, just don't hurt her!" Bentley shouted as he handed the cube to the dog and raised his hands above his head again. "Now let her go."

"Let her go?" The Shepard chuckled as he tossed the cube up into the air and caught it in his paw. "Since when did we make that arrangement?"

* * *

Sly glanced over his shoulder and saw Edmond Nelson brandishing his revolver, a bottle of whisky clutched in his other paw. "I applaud you that was quite a feat. Now let's see how you fair against my trigger hand." The dingo tossed the whisky bottle up into the air and as quick as a flash, shot the bottle into pieces of glass and amber liquid that showered down onto the raccoon. "Have yourself a drink, yankee," he chuckled, "It will most likely be your last." Nelson pulled out a second revolver and fired at the raccoon as he dove for cover behind some machinery.

Sly glanced over the edge of his cover, wiping off the smelly alcoholic liquid on his face and quickly ducking back down as another bullet smacked against the top of the metal surface. "C'mon, yank, you gonna let some Brit show up an American at gun slinging?!" Edmond sprinted forward, vaulting over the machinery and firing at the ground as he sailed through the air. Sly got lucky; the first shot missed his head as he dove away from the shower of bullets.

"Let's see you try that again, Eddy," Sly shouted from behind his cover, "I don't know about you, but I counted twelve shots from you!" Edmond glanced at his revolvers and flipped open the cylinders, his eyes going wide to see that only empty shells fell out of the guns. He cursed and took cover behind a crate as he shoved more rounds into his guns. Sly moved fast, this was his one opening; he swung his cane downward as he jumped over the crate and clonked the broadside of his cane against the dingo's head. Nelson spilled his bullets as he cursed and fired off what bullets he had loaded into his guns.

Sly turned on his heel, bringing out his cane to smack against Nelson a few more times. Like a wound up top, he spun around quickly, knocking out the guns from the dingo's paws and skittering them across the floor. Edmond reached out and snatched the hook of the cane, stopping the raccoon from spinning as the tan colored dog flung Sly across the room by his cane's hook. Sly flew through the air until he landed back onto the floor hard, sliding across the cold concrete surface before stopping as his head clonked against a metal missile casing. He slowly raised his head and weakly opened his eyes as he saw Nelson slowly walk up to him, a wide grin on his face as he chuckled and twirled one of his guns in his right paw.

He stopped twirling the gun and trained the barrel on the stunned raccoon, thumbing back the hammer and licking his lips. "Goodbye, my friend. Or as you Americans say, peace out."

* * *

Murray fell back as another kick to the stomach pushed the air from his lungs. The floating knife lunged for his throat but only hit concrete as the hippo rolled out of the way. He hopped back up onto his feet and threw a punch in the direction the knife was. The blade dropped to the floor and Murray only hit air as he took a defensive stance and glanced around for any trace of the reptile. A slight ripple in the surroundings showed whenever the chameleon moved, leaving him revealed for a slight moment. Murray threw a punch and knocked the reptile in the jaw, flinging him back and forcing him to revert back to his bright green complexion. As the chameleon flew into the wall, the force from the crash caused his skin to turn a dark shade of purple before he landed on the floor, which made his skin shift to a dull yellow.

He reset his jaw with a loud crack and melted back into the surroundings. Murray glanced around, keeping his fists wound up as he hopped on the tips of his feet. He heard the sound of metal scraping against concrete and he swung around to see a floating metal pipe dragging against the floor as it wound up and smacked against his forearms. Pain shot up the hippo's arms as he suddenly felt a numbing sensation in his arms where the pipe whacked against them. The reptile dropped the pipe and scurried away as Murray threw a few more punches at the pipe that clattered to the floor.

His eyes grew big as he felt a weight on his shoulders and gasped as he saw the chameleon was latched onto the hippo's back. He reached behind him to try and dislodge the green menace as he wrapped his forearm around Murray's thick neck and pulled tight as he cut the circulation from his head to the rest of his body. Murray's flailing arms became weak as they limply fell to his sides and he crashed to his knees. His head began to throb as his eyes closed and he collapsed to the floor from the sleeper hold. The chameleon climbed off the hippo and picked up his knife that was on the floor.

He twirled the blade in his fingers a few times as he held the knife so that the blade tip was pointing down. He stood over the unconscious Murray and smirked as he reached back to bring the knife downward onto the hippo.

* * *

Beads of sweat dripped down the turtle's brow as the Shepard shoved the metal cube into his pocket. He placed the barrel of his gun at the mouse's nose and whispered into her large ear. "Open your mouth, nice and wide." Penelope did as instructed and the dog shoved the barrel into the mouse's mouth. Her eyes grew wide as she stared at Bentley.

He didn't know what to do, his mind worked overtime as he tried to think of a plan quickly. His fingers trembled as he thought about shooting a sleep dart into the dog, but would he risk Penelope's life? What if he wasn't quick enough, he couldn't live with himself if he failed. He reached down to push his glasses back against his eyes as they were beginning to slip. Then an idea popped into his head.

Glancing up, he saw the shining sunlight pour into the building from a window across from him a few stories up. He nudged against the seat a few times to get into position as he continued to talk with the dog, keeping his mind preoccupied. "We already surrendered, you've won. There's no reason to kill her now that you are victorious."

"No more talking, turtle! I can do what I please; you're in no position to be making orders!" He pointed the gun at Bentley as he retorted, then replaced it against Penelope's head. Bentley glanced up to see that he was in position, a slight smile creeping over his face as he moved his glasses slightly.

"Alright, sir, but just hear me out. I'll tell you everything you need to know, if you kill us now, you would loose our knowledge we have of you and your superior's entire operation."

"You know about the whole operation?" The dog looked in puzzlement as the gun slightly lowered from Penelope's temple to her cheek.

"Yep, we do, and we've uploaded all our findings to MI6. They should be here anytime now, they will burst in guns blazing and this whole warehouse, as well as all your other facilities will be taken down."

"Y-you're bluffing!"

"I don't bluff, pal," he adjusted his glasses so that the lens caught the light from the sun that poured in through the window and reflected into the dog's eyes. The Shepard cringed and lifted his paw to shield his eyes, realizing that he forgot he let go of the small mouse as she quickly scampered away. Bentley quickly fired a sleep dart into the dog's leg, causing the canine to wince and growl as the sharp tip pierced his thigh. He glanced up quickly, firing off a round before he collapsed to the floor. Both Bentley and Penelope looked at one another, checking if the stray bullet had in fact hit anything vital.

Seeing as they were both still alive, they found that the bullet had not caught them. The mouse lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Bentley as he returned the gesture. He patted the mouse's back and kissed the side of her head as she rested her chin on his shoulder. "Guess this makes us even, right?" The mouse lifted an eyebrow and smirked as Bentley chuckled and shifted his glasses to sit more comfortably on his nose.

"Well, how about we do whatever you want when this is all over?"

"You taking me out on a date, Bentley Turtle?" The reptile's green cheeks turned a shade of red as he smiled. A loud creak came from above them and the two glanced up, their eyes dilating to pinholes as they saw what caused the loud noises. The bullet did in fact hit something; a support strap had been cut from the bullet, suspending large metal girders on the ceiling that dangled dangerously above Bentley's and Penelope's heads. Another support strap creaked and groaned as it began to rip; a metal girder began sliding out and was on the verge of crashing onto the couple.

Everything slowed to a crawl after that eardrum raking snap caused the pile of girders to come falling earthward. Bentley's heart froze; Penelope's eyes grew large as saucers. They both stared at one another as they heard the girders clanking and crashing down upon them.

* * *

Silver's paws were strait and still, he had honed his killer instincts along with his primal instinct of survival, making him an excellent assassin. He was as calm as a monk...or an executioner. His eyes shown with the light from the moon and stars, his gaze gleaming like the shining needle from his tool of death that he clutched in his paw. He had to be careful, ever so delicate so as not to wake his target. The needle had touched skin; slowly he eased the needle deeper into the fox's neck, searching for a vein to pierce and inject his poisonous cargo.

He curled back his lips as his shining false teeth reflected the light from the moon. His breath was calm, his pulse was normal. However, he couldn't help himself but become anxious as he probed the woman's neck for a vein for him to stab at. His heart climbed up into his throat and he thought his jaw would pop from his skull as he clamped it down tight as he heard a subtle click and cold metal press against the back of his head. He gasped and pulled the needle free from Carmelita's neck.

"Shh, the baby's sleeping," Dorian joked as he commanded the hyena to walk away from the bed, "Nice and slow now 'doctor'."

"You've got quite the exceptional stealth skill, boy. Ever thought of putting it to good use?"

"Offering me a job, eh," Dorian wrapped his fingers around the hyena's neck as he pulled him farther away from the bed and pushed him up against the wall. "Sorry, but I don't work for the scum of the world. That needle, what's in it?"

"It's candy, why don't you try some?" Silver smiled, revealing his false teeth and flashing the light from the moon into Dorian's eyes. The ocelot flinched, giving Silver the opening of slipping out of the feline's grip and pulling the gun from his spotted paw. The gun clattered to the floor and Dorian swung his foot to catch the hyena in the jaw, flinging him out of the hospital room and crashing into the hallway wall. The feline pounced; tackling the hyena as he reached for his sidearm strapped to his ankle and clicked back the hammer.

Sliver extended his free paw to catch Dorian in-between the legs, causing the spotted animal to yelp and double over, clutching his nether regions. Silver kicked the four inch barreled revolver from Dorian's paw and bashed his heel into the feline's nose. Constable Booker slid across the floor as Silver bolted back into the hospital room, intent on finishing his assignment. He clutched the needle and brought it down in a stabbing motion, throwing subtlety to the wind. His arm was halted as Dorian wrapped his arm around the hyenas and pulled him off the bed.

The two animals fell off the bed and crashed onto the floor as they wrestled over the needle. Dorian slammed his elbow into Sliver's jaw, knocking him back as the needle clattered across the floor. Carmelita quickly sprang up as the noise ripped her away from her sleep. She glanced down and gasped as she saw the two grappling animals as they pushed themselves out of the hospital room. The hyena slammed Dorian's face into the white wall, dazing the feline as Sliver dove for the needle.

The spotted cat glanced down at a glimmering object on the floor and his eyes grew as he saw his small colt cobra lying on the floor. He clutched the tiny revolver and swung around as the sharp needle of the syringe plunged into his left pectoral. Dorian shot off a few rounds into the hyena's chest and shoved the hit man off of him, gawking at the syringe that was stuck into his chest. The red liquid had disappeared as it was injected into his body, causing his heart to start thumping harder and his chest heave. He wrapped his fingers around the needle and pulled it from his chest as a wave of dizziness attacked and crippled him.

He glanced to his right as he heard a panicky female voice shout after him. He saw a blurry outline of orange and red as Carmelita rushed over to him. He collapsed in her arms as he felt their security wrap around him. Carmelita felt her partner's brow, it was beginning to grow in temperature and dampen with sweat and blood as a small cut poured a trickle of crimson from his head. She gasped as his body began to violently shake and convulse, his paws reflexively clutching whatever was near and wrapping his fingers around her arms tightly.

The red fox clutched the empty needle on the floor and then looked down at the sickly Dorian that shook in her lap. "Help, someone please," Carmelita shouted at the top of her lungs, "Help, we need help! He's been poisoned, he's going to die!" A few doctors sprinted down the hallway, their shoes slapping against the tiled floor as it echoed down the hall. They knelt down and called for a stretcher as they lifted Dorian onto it and wheeled him down the hallway.

"Miss, you should go back and rest, we will help Constable Booker." A nurse blocked Carmelita's path as she tried to follow Dorian down the white hall.

"But he-

"Miss Fox, please get some rest. We will inform you on your partner's condition in the morning."

"How do you know that he will even make it to morning?" Carmelita's shout made the nurse speechless as the lioness searched for something to say. The vixen huffed and picked up Dorian's side arm and the needle, flipping open the cylinder of the colt cobra. She counted two shots that were fired, and the trail of blood that wormed down the hallway told her that the shots hit their mark. Unfortunately, the assassin's body was missing so he was still alive, or would be for a few more agonizing minutes if he didn't seek medical attention.

Carmelita flipped the safety on and held the side arm by the barrel so it was pointing away. She handed the needle to the nurse and slowly walked back into her room. Collapsing on the stiff hospital bed, she stuffed the miniature revolver under her pillow and simply looked out the window as she worried for the life of her partner that just protected her so bravely and valiantly.


	8. Call me Tom

**Chapter 8**

**Call Me Tom**

* * *

**T**he world was like a carousel, slowly spinning and wobbling around with the impossibility of standing without stumbling and falling flat on your face. But there was no happy go lucky music that you normally hear when on a carousel, only the venomous chuckling of Edmond Nelson as he slowly stepped towards Sly's dazed form, grinning wide and twirling his revolver in his paw. "Good bye my friend," the dingo sneered as he brought the barrel of his gun to point directly at the raccoon's forehead. "Or as you Americans say, peace out." The hammer clicked back and his finger on the trigger as he steadily pulled it back.

Before he depressed the trigger fully however, a loud clank followed by a series of more noise above him caused him to hesitate and glance above him. Nelson's eyes grew large as he saw that the scaffolding above him was crashing down along with piles of metal girders. Sly shook his head, clearing his sight from the fog that clouded his vision and he glanced up as well, his pupils shrinking to pinholes as he quickly sprang up and clutched his cane. "I think I've overstayed my welcome," Sly hurriedly shouted as he lunged out of the gun's sights as a bullet erupted. The magnum slug sparked against the floor that the thief originally lay on and sprinted away.

"No! Cooper, you bottom feeding filth,** NOOOOOO!!"**

Cooper looked away as the metal girders rained down on the dingo, cutting off his shouts of rage and anguish. The raccoon was almost afraid to look back as the dust settled. The cloud of dust and smoke subsided and all that remained was a large pile of warped metal and rusted girders. His stomach iced over as he saw a limp paw lying on the floor, a small trickle of blood pouring from the pile of girders and collecting in a small puddle near the paw that clutched a silver revolver in its cold lifeless fingers. Sly rested his cane against his shoulder as he reached for his cap with his free paw and placed it over his heart.

Placing it back on his head, Sly glanced up as he tried to figure out what had caused the miracle that saved his life and ultimately led to the grisly death of Edmond Nelson.

* * *

The girders came crashing down, everything was silent. The world ceased to exist; only the fearful expressions of both Bentley and Penelope seemed to appear as they waited for their ultimate demise. He didn't want things to end, not when everything was going so well, not when he and Penelope had so much left unsaid. He glanced up once more as the cascade of metal rained down, thinking quickly for any chance of escaping their fate. Bringing the small mouse into his lap, Bentley clung to her as he tried one last ditch effort to escape from the torrent of rusted steel.

Penelope buried her face into his embrace as he clicked on a button under the armrest of his chair and the small jet engines from under his seat came to life. The bright yellow glow of the afterburners screamed to life as he jumped off the surface they stood on and jetted away. His heart raced, could they make it to safety? Penelope gave a muffed cry as she clung to Bentley tighter, feeling the tremors of the crashing metal. An edge clipped the end of his chair, causing the engines to sputter and spark as he wobbled slightly while hovering in the air, beads of sweat dropping like rain from his brow.

Bentley lunged with every ounce of what strength he had and clutched onto the guard rail of a piece of scaffolding that wasn't torn away from the raining girders. An earsplitting shout of anger pierced the mental silence the turtle and mouse shared as they both glanced down. The metal piled atop of one another as a large cloud of dust kicked up, Penelope clutching Bentley as he hung onto the guard rail, suspended a good eighty feet from the cold hard ground. "Are you ok?" Bentley's panic filled voice addressed the mouse curled up into a fetal position. She raised her head to stare up at him and lightly smiled and her eyes full of fear.

"Y-yeah, just fine, mind if we talk after we get back on solid ground?"

"No argument here." He grunted as he tried to pull himself up, loosing his grip on his chair as it fell down along with the girders, the automatic safety feature kicked in and the chair gently floated down to the ground as the booster jets clicked on.

* * *

"Hey, that looks like Bentley's chair...uh oh." Sly quickly glanced up as he saw the modified wheelchair gently drift down to the ground. He gasped and squinted at the little specks of movement above him. He darted up the metal grated staircase and climbed up and up and up, his leg muscles burning until he was on the scaffolding. Sprinting down the length of the rickety surface, Sly saw a pair of green hands clinging to the guardrail. "Need a lift?"

"You have no idea," Bentley sighed in relief as Sly wrapped his paw around his wrist. He placed his feet against the guardrail and pulled with all his might as Bentley pushed up. Penelope grasped the closest railing and helped pull them out of danger. Dropping onto the metal floor of the scaffolding, Sly lay on his back and stared up at the ceiling as he huffed and breathed from the stressful situation and from his burning muscles. "Thanks, Sly, I owe you big."

"Yeah, how bout a bullet proof sweater, I'm sure that could come in handy." Sly chuckled as he raised his head and sighed, flopping onto the floor again. He heaved as he pushed his muscles from sprinting up all those flights of stairs and pulling the two animals' combined weight from the plummet. The adrenaline wore off their bodies and their legs became wobbly for a moment as they stood up, Sly hefting Bentley onto his back.

"Hmm, a bullet proof sweater sounds intriguing. I could probably knit Kevlar fibers so that they are more moveable and breathable. Problem is, it's gonna be tricky to knit a sweater from Kevlar and cotton that could be durable enough to stop a bullet."

Don't sweat it," Sly glanced over his shoulder to the turtle as they and Penelope steadily walked down the stairs. "It can be a challenge for you; you've already mastered every other technical innovation. Now it's your time to strike at the next vulnerable source, fashion designing." Penelope giggled as Bentley huffed and crossed his arms.

"I was being serious, Sly. A bullet proof sweater would make me less worried about you getting a slug in the chest. You can't rely on your cunning and reflexes forever, weapons are getting more sophisticated these days."

"Yeah, but it sure saved my tail this time around."

* * *

This had to go down in the record books as the worst headache ever. Murray's first thought was to ask Bentley for some aspirin when this job was finally over. A click from the outside caused his eyes to snap open as the chuckling chameleon flipped out the blade of his knife and brought it down in a stabbing motion. Murray wasted no time; he leaned forward and balanced on his hands as he sprung back, slamming into the reptile and ending up with the end result of him sitting atop the gasping green lizard. "Gak, get off of me, you weigh as much as a semi!"

"Yeah sure, right, in your dreams, coward," Murray sat up quickly and then slammed back down onto the chameleon's chest. "Like I'd let you go for what you did. You kicked me in the face and you even called me fat, what a cheap shot. But once again, the Murray has conquered evil with his awesome strength!"

"Strength, what strength, you're holding me down by sitting on me with that fat ass of yours!" Murray brought his fist down and clonked it against the side of the chameleon's head.

"Be quiet and let me get back to smashin' stuff!"

* * *

"Steady his pulse, he's pumping blood too quickly, it will work the poison into his system faster!" A white clad doctor wiped his sweating brow as he pointed to another doctor and tried to regulate Dorian's rising pulse. Sticking a syringe into the spotted cat's arm, the clear liquid took effect and Dorian drifted off to sleep, his heart ceased racing from the stress building up in him.

"His pulse is dropping, doctor. We've identified the poison in his blood stream as a neurotoxin; we have to get it out of his system before he goes into paralysis." Dorian was beginning to sweat profusely; the white mattress was growing damp as his body broke out into a cold sweat and tried to cycle out the harmful chemical that was injected into his body. His nerves were beginning to shut down as paralysis was starting to take effect. Dark circles formed around his eyes as he continued to sweat and pant in his sleep.

"Doctor, his pulse is rising again. We need to administer an antidote before his muscle system shuts down." Another doctor came by and placed a wrap around Dorian's arm, tightening the strap so that a vein would rise to the surface of his skin. Brushing back the yellow and black spotted fur, the doctor tapped against the feline's arm a few times with two fingers to help coax the vein into plain sight. The poison was much like a natural poison from a venomous snake or arachnid, attacking the nerves and shutting them down until the poison eventually killed whoever it infected.

The anti-venom was placed into the doctor's outstretched paw as he sterilized the area around the vein with a disinfectant that was soaked into a small cotton ball and he gently eased the needle into the vein. Pressing down the plunger, the liquid traveled out off the needle and into Dorian's blood stream. His panting began to decrease, but his muscle groups were still unresponsive as he continued to sweat and gradually appear to look sicker and sicker. "It's easing the effects, but his muscle system is shutting down, what in gods name was he injected with?"

"It's a homemade poison, Doctor." Another white clad animal stepped beside the one that stood over Dorian, his muzzle covered with a white face mask. "Whoever got him was quite the professional chemist. It stuns the body and violently inflicts stress on all the muscle groups as it passes through the bloodstream, I've only seen a few cases such as this before."

"You're telling me someone made this poison? And that it has been implemented before?"

"Correct, Doctor. By my assumption, this poison and its effects on the body bare a striking resemblance to..." he paused as he lowered his head and sadly stared at the struggling ocelot on the hospital bed, "...torture and silent murder techniques."

"I see," both doctors looked down at Dorian as he sucked in air through his nostrils and dug his claws into the hospital bed as the muscle pains kicked in again. "Is there anything we can do for him?"

"We've really done all we can do. The poison is simply meant to cripple the body and inflict pain until it slowly kills the affected. Whether he will survive the effects or not, that's up to him from this point."

* * *

Sly helped Bentley into his chair as they stepped back onto the concrete floors, the raccoon glancing at the mangled pile of metal in the middle of the floor. He cringed as he saw the puddle of crimson growing since the last time he witnessed it but shook away the shivers and focused on the task at hand. "Bentley," he spoke, the turtle turning around to face him, "Nelson had connections with the organization that's trying to rebuild Clockwerk. Maybe he has a copy of the schematics here."

"Hmm, you could be right," Bentley brought a hand to his chin and rubbed it in thought, "Penelope and I will let you search the area for anything useful before we set off my bombs and level this place. I'll contact Murray to wrap everything up with the machinery."

"Thanks pal." Sly straightened the brim of his cap and walked off towards Edmond Nelson's office. Once he was away from Bentley and Penelope, he began thinking out loud as he jogged down the ruined hallways with glass glistening and covering the floor. "Clockwerk, what are they planning to do with you?" His boots crunched against the broken glass that littered the floor, making his train of thought rather difficult with all the background noise.

"They don't seem interested in wiping out the last Cooper," he continued to think, "But then why else would they create a new Clockwerk? And what is so important at the bottom of the ocean?" His thoughts were cut off as his stepped towards the door to Nelson's office and slowly pushed it open. Heading for the desk, a few of the fichus plants were tipped over as the potted soil was spread all over the carpet. The glass windows were a series of bullet holes and spider webbed with cracks but it appeared solid.

Slowly pulling open one of the drawers, his eyes grew big as the polished metal of a gun barrel stared up at him as he opened the drawer. Hearing a click, he quickly ducked down and heard the eruption of a shotgun blast right over his head and smack into the glass. His heart raced as he clutched it and breathed deep, jumping as he heard the buzzing in his red holster. Bringing his binoc-u-com to his eyes, Bentley appeared on screen and addressed the raccoon. "Everything ok up there, Sly?"

"Yeah," he said in a shaky voice, "It's just a booby trap, nothing major."

"Alright then, just be careful."

"Yeah...no doubt," He shoved the blue binoculars into the holster on his thigh and slowly lifted his head cautiously. The barrel of the shotgun bellowed smoke but it appeared rather harmless. Looking below the desk, he saw a sawed-off shotgun strapped to the desk and pointing into the drawer, a string tied from the drawer and wrapped around the gun's trigger. "I'd call you a genius for this if it wasn't so insane, Nelson," Sly lightly chuckled, un-strapping the gun and tossing it to the floor, "Now let's see what's so important that you'd blow someone's head off to protect."

Reaching in, he probed piles of papers and dug them out, holding each piece spread out like a hand of playing cards. Nothing seemed to important, but one piece caught his attention. Cracking open the file, he became fully entranced into the text as he saw the name "Carmelita Montoya Fox" in bold black letters. His eyes grew big as the order for her immediate elimination scrolled past his gaze, Nelson had the copy incase she were to stick her nose into their operation and he was allowed authorization to kill her on sight. That explained the rotten feeling in his gut, the horrible thoughts and the nightmare from this morning.

Carmelita Fox, his love had become a target for assassination by this organization.

* * *

"Son of a bitch," Sliver growled as he dug a pocket knife into the bullet hole in his abdomen, digging deeper until he flicked his wrist and popped the bullet out of his body. "Grrrraaaaaaah, dammit," he shouted as the second bullet popped out finally, "Damned feline plugged me good, aw well he'll be maggot food soon enough." The hyena poked his fingers into the hole and probed around to see if anything was critically damaged, thankfully the gun was a measly twenty-two or he wouldn't be breathing right now. Leaning against the wall of a small medical storage closet, he reached up on one of the shelves and found a bundle of gauss and bandages. Stuffing the wounds and wrapping them tight, he crawled out of the closet and shed his disguise for a less eye catching attire, people tend to notice when you're walking out of a hospital drenched in blood so he pulled on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, slipping back on his piercings.

He glanced at his watch and grimaced at the time, an hour had passed and he feared for Colonel to be calling him any moment now. As if on que, his cell phone began buzzing in his jean pocket and he silently cursed as he walked out of the hospital, clutching his stomach. "Hello Colonel," he said as positively as he could muster.

"Silver, an hour of time has passed and you are no where to be seen, my men are becoming impatient. Have you succeeded, is Carmelita Fox no more?"

"Well...not exactly."

"...Explain yourself, Mr. Silver."

"Um," the hyena stammered, "That other cop, a Constable Booker I believe stopped me from injecting the poison into her body. He plugged me in the gut a couple of times and is in the hospital trying to recover from the poison I injected into him instead." It wasn't what he heard after he finished explaining that he failed, whether it was what he didn't hear that scared him. After about a solid minute of complete silence, a long drawn in breath caused shivers to run down the hyena's spine as Colonel responded.

"I am...rather...disappointed with what has transpired here, Silver."

"I'm sorry, sir...it won't happen again, that I promise you."

"I know it won't." Before Silver could open his mouth to respond a bright flash off in the distance caught his eye and the bone chilling scream of a bullet flying through the night air caught his ears as they twitched. The rifle bullet whizzed right towards him, cracking through the protective barrier of his ribcage and ripping a hole into his heart. Death was instantaneous as he fell limp on the concrete sidewalk and the last breath he held in his lungs hissed out of his mouth.

* * *

"Fool," Colonel hissed as he slapped the cell phone shut and gave a series of hand gestures to his assistants and they all piled into the black limousine. He brought a paw to his right ear and spoke quickly into it. "Excellent marksmanship, Mr. Dolan, thank you for 'taking out the trash' as it were."

"It was my pleasure, sir," the voice on the other line of Colonel's earpiece chuckled, "I'll be returning to the compound now, is there anything you would like for me to do?"

"Not at the moment," the shadowed form said as he slid into the limo's cushioned seat and gestured for the driver to leave, "Its best we lay low for now." Colonel cut off the line and placed the earpiece onto a foldout tray in the limo as he opened up a compartment and poured himself a glass of champagne, the liquid gurgling and fizzing slightly in the elegant glass. Slipping out a cigar from one of its protective foil sleeves, Colonel brought the tobacco filled stick to his lips and struck a match, the area around his coal black eyes illuminating from the match's flame until it was snuffed out. He pulled the car phone off its charger and brought it to his ear, blowing out a cloud of smoke from his mouth. "Mr. Kane, could you please connect me with Miss Crimson and Mr. Blue?"

A pause on the end of the line came until the voice of Colonel's assistant flowed through the phone's speakers. "Of course, sir, I'm patching the line to their address now." A short static filled pause later and a deep aristocratic voice came over the line.

"Blue speaking, what are the details?"

* * *

The two bodies wrestled and clung to one another in the bed of the darkened room as the springs from the mattress creaked and groaned, sheets moving along with their thrashing forms. A female voice moans as she wraps her legs around a male torso and they both breathe deep as their lips connect and their tongues duel. The annoying ring of a phone causes both bodies to go stiff and their thrashing ceases. A female fox with blazing red fur and white around her muzzle poked her head from the blankets and glared at the chattering device. "The blasted phone's ringing," she snapped as the male malamute moved his body off of her, his eyes a bright ice blue glowed as he neared the phone and clutched it in his paws.

"Blue speaking, what are the details?" The black and white dog swished his curled tail back and forth in annoyance as he heard the female fox grumble and climb off the bed, slipping on a silky red robe and tying the belt around her waist. She stood next to the naked canine and playfully pinched his rump as she walked out of the room. "Yes, of course Colonel...a police officer you say, two police officers, male and female...alright, yes," the fiery red vixen came back into the room with a glass of water and two pills in her paw. She tossed back the pills and swallowed them down with a gulp of water, licking her lips and looking back at Blue who jotted down notes on the small pad of paper by the phone.

"Yes, Miss Crimson and I will be there first thing in the morning. Yes...yes of course. We understand...discrete, not our normal routine but we can be flexible. Alright, we will call you tomorrow morning and arrange our meeting. You too, sir, thank you." The malamute slammed the phone on the holder and sighed as he slowly turned around.

"A bomb or a war better have erupted because he interrupted something far more important then one of his silly missions." The red vixen traced a finger down the dog's chest as he emitted a deep growl from his throat in arousal.

"No sweetheart, there's some killing need to be done."

"Again," she groaned as she slowly moved back to the bed, "We just finished that job in Bosnia. We finally get back and now we're whisked away again. I need another pill."

"No more, you've had your fill for the day," Blue clutched the fox's wrist and spun her around, pushing his body against hers, "Don't abuse your medicine my dear, I need you to help me with our work." She turned away and slyly grinned, closing her emerald eyes.

"Is that all I'm good for to you, a work partner?"

"Well we wouldn't have such a perfect career if it wasn't for you, but that's not all you're good for, sweetheart." He moved his paw around to squeeze her rump and she lightly gasped and turned him around sharply before roughly shoving him onto the bed.

"You remember what happened to the last man that pinched my fanny don't you?"

"That horrid memory will haunt me for the rest of my life, but I probably would have done the same if I caught him in the act of touching my woman like that. Why must you use your, ahem, 'assets' in order to kill our targets?"

"It's how things operate, honey," she slowly moved to lay on top of him as she slipped off her blood red silk robe," You are the master of manipulation while I'm the master of seduction, these cops shouldn't be too much trouble. You deal with the woman while I'll take care of the man, should be simple."

"Excellent, darling, now to continue what was previously interrupted."

* * *

Carmelita Fox lay in her bed, pulling off the small bandages from her face and staring up at the ceiling. She couldn't sleep as she thought of her partner's struggling condition in the room just down the hall from hers. She turned to lie on her side, staring out the small window built into the door of her room. Carmelita couldn't stand it any longer; she sprang up from the bed and quietly slid out of her room and walked down the hall, balancing on the tips of her toes as she pressed her back against the wall. Brushing up against the wall as she moved, she slid down the hall as quietly and elegantly as a wind blown leaf.

She instantly stopped and crouched as two doctors stepped out of a hospital room and talked amongst themselves as they walked down the hall away from Carmelita. Controlling her racing heart, the vixen stood back up and moved down the hall again, stopping at the door from where she saw Booker being carted away. Looking above to peer into the small door window, she couldn't see very much due to the lights being shut off. She wiggled the handle and grinned as she found it to be unlocked and she moved into the dark room. Carmelita, sniffing the air, walked towards the curtained area of the room, looking in to peer at the shadowy silhouette on the other side.

She clutched the thin cloth curtain and slowly pulled it away, revealing the form that lay on the bed in a deep pain induced slumber. The agony of the poison moving through the ocelot's body caused him to force himself into unconsciousness, dark circles around his eyes as he slowly breathed through his slightly open mouth. The sight made Carmelita turn away for a moment as moisture filled her brown eyes, and then she turned back and walked up closer to the bed. She sniffed and brought a paw to rest on the feline's brow, feeling the moisture from the sweat that poured from his body and the heat that his flesh gave off. A soft groan emitted from Dorian's throat as he cracked open his eyes, his horizontal diamond shaped irises shrinking and widening as they came into focus.

He tiled his head and a light smile slowly spread across his lips as he looked at the person standing over him. "You...look better," he said weakly, his voice was a rasping whisper. "How...is...your nose?" Carmelita gave out a slight laugh as she choked down the tears.

"Its fine, it stopped bleeding," she brought a paw to the side of his face and felt the muscles of his cheek move as his smile widened. "Doctor's said I can be out of here in about another day."

"Oh good...thanks for...visiting...me."

"Don't talk; don't put so much strain on yourself."

"You always say...I talk...too much." He slowly moved one of his arms out from under the sheets and gently clasped her arm that was outstretched for her paw to touch his face. He moved his finger to rub the fur of her forearm and smiled proudly. "I can...move my arms...again," he chuckled, "Ain't you...proud...of me?" She lightly laughed as she sucked in another breath, opening her mouth to speak but was soon cut off by a noise behind her.

Whipping her head around, a nurse walked into the room and stopped as she saw Carmelita, pointing sharply to the door. "Miss Fox, you are not to be in here, you need to give Mr. Booker his rest!"

"Hey...nurse," Dorian shouted to his best ability, "Shut...your gob...and let the girl...visit me. It's not everyday...a pretty girl...visits me." He chuckled and smiled again as he heard the nurse remain silent. He drew in a deep breath as he tried to speak. "You...owe me...a chance to drive...the cruiser...next time, deal?"

"Deal," she said as she lightly nodded her head, "You can drive anytime, Dorian. Just mind the speed limit, k?" The ocelot's eyebrows quirked in surprise and he chuckled again.

"Carmelita...did you...just call me...by my first name?" He gave off another chuckle as Carmelita confessed.

"Yes, I did, Dorian. I may act like a hard ass at times, but I really do appreciate you as my partner and friend. I wouldn't be standing here right now if it wasn't for you, thank you, Dorian." She curled her lips up in a smile and planted a light kiss on the spotted feline's cheek. His mouth hung open slightly and his lips drew up in a bashful grin as he slowly moved his paw up to touch where she had kissed him.

"Is that...all it takes...to get a kiss...from you?"

"Just think what it's gonna take to go out with me."

"Would you like to...go out sometime?" She hesitated for a moment and then smiled as she touched his cheek one more time.

"Sure, you've earned it. First get better, and then we will go out. One condition."

"Name it," he quirked a brow in wonder as he waited for her demands.

"I get to pick the place."

"You got it...Carmelita," he said as his eyes fell weakly and he drifted off to sleep; his paw sliding out of hers and flopping limply back on the bed. His breathing came in rhythm again as it hissed out of his parted mouth. She cupped his chin and gently closed his open mouth as the vixen stood up and walked out of the hospital room.

* * *

"The resurrection of Clockwerk, you say? So that is why he wanted me to kill Miss Fox." Sokoloff leaned against the glass wall of the phone booth as he continued listening to the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Correct, seems the good Colonel has found something very interesting at the bottom of the ocean and he doesn't want the cop that defeated Clockwerk twice to return again."

"Really, could he be looking for Atlantis perhaps?"

"Don't be stupid, Atlantis is a myth. Whatever's got the Colonel so stressed and hell bent on finding is no lost city of the sea. Did you meet up with my contact?"

"Yes," the wolf hybrid stated in a British accent, "He was quite rude though, seems he doesn't take kindly to foreigners."

"You didn't kill him did you?"

"Oh of course not, however," Sokoloff glanced over his shoulder at the parked car behind him and glanced at the limp body that was shoved into the backseat. "He's not going to be in a very talkative mood for at least a good," Sokoloff rolled up his sleeve and glanced at his watch before drawing in a breath, "About thirty more minutes."

"At least you know where to go. Colonel has no clue?"

"Not in the slightest, he doesn't know I purposely let Carmelita Fox live. I put her in the hospital for a few days yes but nothing permanently damaged." The wolf hound held up his paw and inspected his claws as he blew into them and rubbed them on his coat, feeling the smooth glossy texture of the leather fabric. "He thinks I've probably fled the country to elude his wrath, being one of his hired hands that failed, he will most likely want me dead."

"You mean he wants Sokoloff dead."

"Correct, speaking of which," the wolf hound reached up and ripped a small hole around the skin of his neck and peeled off the mask that hid his true visage. The middle aged Siberian Wolfdog now appeared as a young and handsome jackal, his tan fur with black streaks across the sides of his muzzle looked nothing that resembled the Russian hit man. "Ah, much better, I swore my head shrank while I was in that bloody thing." He reached down and pulled up his pants leg to unbuckle a few straps against his calf and pulled off a pair of fake feet. The false limbs were attached to his in order for him to appear like the imposing height of the real Sokoloff.

Instead of the seven foot tall Russian lupine canine mix, now stood the six foot two English golden jackal. "Being a master of disguise is so difficult sometimes," he groaned as he stretched his legs and leaned backwards to crack the vertebrae in his stiff back. "I feel like I've shed a hundred pounds."

"Enjoy your liberation at a later time," the voice from the phone's speaker stated, "Your mission is far from over. Now that the Colonel doesn't know what truly happened to Sokoloff we can eliminate the wolf hound from the equation. I also have reports in the Paris area that Mr. Silver's body has just been recovered. Seems he got sloppy and the Colonel didn't take to kindly to his failure thanks to you tapping on the glass of her room and waking up Constable Booker in order for him to save her. That leaves only a few more of Colonel's assassins to deal with."

"So who is left?" The jackal rolled his paw around on his wrist as he waited for his employer to get to the point more quickly.

"Lucius just reported in and informed us that Miss Crimson and Mr. Blue have set their sights on Miss Fox. You're familiar with them, correct?"

"Of course," the gold haired animal stated bluntly, "Who am I, boss?" A sigh on the other end of the line was his only response.

"I'm not even going to answer that question, besides you're too many people to keep track of these days."

"I'll keep an eye on Miss Fox as instructed, boss." The jackal glanced over his shoulder again and then back at his watch. "Everything is going quite smoothly if I do say so myself."

"Make sure Carmelita Fox is alive and well, she is the key to our success. I cannot stress this enough with you."

"Of course, sir, I understand completely. This will benefit me as well you know." The jackal glanced over his shoulder for a third time as he heard a groan from the back seat of the sedan. "Ah," he grinned, "My prejudice friend is starting to come to. I shouldn't keep him waiting much longer; he tends to just get more annoying the longer I am around him."

"He's a good agent, deal with it." The voice's rebuttal made the jackal's ears go flat for a moment and he made a grimace in slight disgust.

"A good agent, yes, yes of course," he said sarcastically, "So, I will call you in the morning then."

"I'll be waiting to hear from you, this mission rests on your shoulders from here on out. I'm afraid we cannot spare anymore support from this point on." The jackal chuckled and shook his head.

"Boss, it's me you're talking to here. This little assignment isn't the hardest thing I've ever done."

"That doesn't make it that less important. Get it done or consider yourself done!"

"Ay, ay, sir. See you in the morning." The jackal clicked the phone onto the receiver and slid out of the booth. He climbed into the driver seat of the sedan and brought it to life in a loud purr of the motor. A soft groan caused his ears to twitch and he glanced up at the mirror above him. "Sleep well?"

A grunt was his only response. "Don't fret, maybe you'll be nicer to those of a different nationality from here on out. For now, just sit down be quiet and this ride will be a lot more pleasant and short."

"What did you do to me?" The Doberman in the back seat rubbed his head as it throbbed with pain and a slight bump began to appear on his forehead.

"Well I can certainly tell you your head is not as thick as I had thought," the jackal chuckled as he sharply turned and made the dog in the back seat shift around as he wasn't buckled into the seat.

"Who are you, anyway? The boss hadn't told me anything about who I was picking up and I've never seen you around the HQ."

"Me," the golden furred canine said in mock astonishment, "You can call me 'Tom'."


	9. Darling and Sweetheart

**Chapter 9**

**Darling and Sweetheart**

* * *

**A** target for elimination, the words from the black inked text burned a scar into the raccoon's mind. He held the documents in a pair of shaking grey paws, the rotten feelings all made sense now. He pulled out the binoc-u-com from his thigh holster and brought it to his face, the small screens on both sides of the display coming to life with his face on the left as always. He found it strange at times to see himself talking to Bentley and Murray when he himself was broadcasting the signal. "Bentley, do you copy?"

The raccoon glanced around and stuffed the papers into his holster as he waited for Bentley to respond. "I'm here, what did you find, Sly?"

"I've got some information on this place and a few more pieces of what else is going on with this group. But that's not what I contacted you for," Sly looked away and hesitated for a moment before responding. "Bentley, they're going to kill Carmelita!"

"Carmelita, you're sure?"

"I've got the papers for her assassination order in my pocket right now." He sighed and bit his lip. "I have to go back to Paris."

"But what about Clockwerk," Bentley shrugged his shoulders and held his hands up for a moment to add emphasis to his point. "Who knows how much longer we have until he's up and running again."

"Bentley," Sly immediately retorted, his brows furrowing up, "I need to help her; I need to make sure she's alive." A phone clattered and came to life on Edmond Nelson's desk. The dark purple device rattled and made an annoying sound as the machine finally picked up the message.

"_You have reached the desk of Edmond Percival Nelson. I am not able to answer the phone now so leave me a detailed message and I will return the call as soon as possible."_

"His middle name is Percival?" Sly would have chuckled if the situation were not so urgent. Slinking towards the phone, he leaned near the device and listened in on the recording.

"Nelson...Nelson pick up the confounded telephone," a voice shouts, its deep shady accent sends shivers down the raccoon's spine. He's heard this voice before somewhere. "Nelson...what's going on? Someone pick up the telephone!" Sly erased the message as it stopped, the machine giving off an annoying tone as it continued to ask if the raccoon wished to erase the messages again and again. Bringing the binoc-u-com to his eyes again, Sly drew in a breath and spoke to Bentley.

"I need to get back to Paris, Bentley. I need to know if she's still alive, if Carmelita is still ok." Bentley shook his head and pushed his glasses back up to the brim of his beak like nose.

"Sly, we need everyone to stop Clockwerk-

"Then that means we need Carmelita!" Sly shouted and curled his fingers up into a fist. His harsh expression began to soften as he realized what he did. "I'm sorry, Bentley, I just need to find her. Every time we fought Clockwerk, Carmelita was there to help us. We need her as much as you need me, you know this Bentley."

"I..." the turtle trailed off as he sighed and shook his head again. "You're right, Sly. We need her to stop Clockwerk if he becomes or if he already is operational. I can't stop you; she's the woman you love after all."

"Thanks, Bentley," Sly closed his eyes and glanced down at his red holster again, his pointed ears drooping down. "You're the best."

"Ah I would have done the same if I was in your position. The gang and I will get out of here and continue working on the Clockwerk case while you keep Carmelita safe. And see if you can try to get her to help us while you're out there, k pal?"

"Will do," Sly began walking out of the office and down the scaffolding. "Good luck to you guys, I'll come back as soon as I can."

"Alright, have fun in Paris, pal." Bentley's face disappeared from the screen's smooth surface as the raccoon shoved the blue device back into his holster. Sighing, he glanced at the warehouse once more as he stepped out of the ruined building. Then turning back, he made his way to the safe house to grab a few necessities for his new assignment.

* * *

The Paris international airport was busy as ever, masses of animals, birds, and reptiles piled in or swarmed out of hallways and loading docks from coming and going aircrafts. Among the masses of fur and feathers and scales came a fast walking raccoon. In his right paw he clutched a black leather briefcase while his left was shoved into the pocket of his brown film noir style trench coat. His eyes concealed by a pair of thick dark sun glasses, he lowered them slightly to give off just a glimpse of his chocolate brown eyes as he briefly surveyed his surroundings. Taking a seat in one of the many chairs that dotted the airport, he clicked open his briefcase and glimpsed at the disassembled cane that was neatly packed in the case.

The wood pole was tucked neatly into a sleeve while the golden hook was sitting right beside it. The gold tip at the bottom of the wood shaft was also unfastened and placed inside a small pocket so it wouldn't roll around in the large case. Sly's binoc-u-com was also there, followed by the Thevious Raccoonus. The leather bound book had seen better days as the ravages of time took its toll on the worn leather cover and the edges of the tattered pages. Sly couldn't help but chuckle when he first glimpsed at the book, most of the entries were in different languages as it traveled all over the world with his ancestors.

He had to learn ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek, one form of feudal Japanese, Arabic, one form of the Celtic language, and even an old pirate dialect that Henriette "One Eye" Cooper had developed through her travels across the sea. It took some time while he was on the road to decipher the words written in the book, but thankfully he was able to master each technique thanks to a few helpful illustrations in the book of how each move was executed. Clipping the briefcase shut, Sly stood up from his seat and made his way out of the airport and headed strait for the safe house that was conveniently placed only a few blocks away from Carmelita's apartment. As he patted down the sidewalk gently pushing through groups of people, he began to pick up speed as he felt a growing urgency bubbling up in his chest. His mind was focused on other things as he pushed hard through the crowds of people, he didn't even hear the curses and shouts of annoyance as he pushed past them and out of his way.

Jogging down a cross walk, he ran into someone and lost his footing as he tumbled to the floor. A light squeak of surprise followed as the red vixen he ran into toppled to the floor along with him. He grunted and sat up on the sidewalk as he glanced at the female fox dressed in a red button up shirt with a matching red coat in her arms. "Oh my, I'm terribly sorry," she said in a soft, sweet apologetic tone, "Are you alright?" Sly stood up and helped the very attractive vixen up off the cement.

"No, no it's alright. It was my fault, I wasn't paying attention." Sly adjusted his glasses as the vixen's bright eyes looked up at him and nearly made his heart stop. She was way too easy on the eyes, it was almost impossible not to get distracted by her, but he had a job to do so he was able to look away. "So are you ok," he said trying to collect himself, "I didn't hurt you did I?"

"Oh no I'm fine, thank you," she looked down for a moment and then stared back up at him and put a paw to her lips. "You're sweet, what's your name?"

"My name," the raccoon said nervously. "My name is...Charles."

"Well it's nice to meet you, Charles, my name is Natalie." Her voice was like the sound of an angel's voice, smooth and sweet it hinted the promise of paradise. "I hope to see you again some time, handsome, adieu." She winked at him as she turned around and left, the hypnotic swaying of her hips caught Sly's attention for a moment as she left. Shaking his head to clear the fog in his mind, he grabbed the briefcase off the floor beside him and continued on his way towards the safe house.

* * *

Taking cover behind a wall of an alley, the red clad vixen pressed her back against the wall and pulled out a cell phone from her coat pocket. Pulling out the antenna and flipping the phone open, she clicked a button and a pre-set number began automatically dialing. "Blue, darling do you hear me?" She paused until a voice on the other end spoke through the phone.

"I hear you loud and clear, sweetheart. What's your position?"

"I'm near the target's apartment complex, has she left the hospital yet?"

"I'm afraid not," Blue sighed, "She's waiting for her confounded partner to recover from Mr. Silver's little blunder."

"An unfortunate turn of events, but no matter, like you said sweetie, we can be flexible." She raised her paw to inspect her nails. The bright red glossy claws were clipped to perfection. A beep from the phone signaled that she had another call waiting so she quickly spoke to Blue once more. "Darling I have another call waiting, can we continue this later?"

"That's strange," the malamute said, "I have a call waiting as well. I'll call you back soon, sweetheart." The line was cut and replaced with the call in waiting as a shady voice came on the other line.

"Miss Crimson," the Colonel's voice nearly startled the small vixen, "I have your associate Mr. Blue conversing with one of my assistants. Something has arisen that I need you to take care of."

"I'm listening," she sighed as she glanced at her nails again.

"I have called Edmond Nelson a few days ago; he is the head of our weapons supply and manufacturing plant in Britain."

"And this concerns me and my lover how exactly?"

"If you would stifle yourself and keep that slim covered tongue behind your teeth I will tell you." The insult made the vixen slightly grimace to the sting. "Now then," he continued, "There was no answer when I called him, curious; I opened up the database of the security cameras in the facility. What we found was quite surprising."

"What did you discover, Colonel?"

"Are you familiar with a master thief known as Sly Cooper?" He paused to allow the name to sink in. Crimson smirked and curled up her lips to reveal a row of pearl white fangs.

"I do, yes. Am I thinking what I hope you're thinking, sir?"

"If your idea is to kill a certain master thief then yes." The vixen's smile brightened as she continued to listen with growing interest. "We found footage that he discovered the assassination attempt on Carmelita Fox, seeing this we guess that he has sabotaged my weapon's manufacturing plant and has come back to Paris France in order to help Miss Fox from being murdered. Since he has caused us much trouble in the past and that he is beginning to grow closer to the whereabouts of my precious merchandise, I will pay you and Mr. Blue an extra sum for his elimination as well." Crimson sighed in excitement as she leaned up against the brick wall of the alleyway once more and stared up towards the sky.

"Oh, Colonel, you know just how to make a woman happy. I'll deal with Cooper personally."

"Good, no particular order of elimination is in effect, simply killing whoever is closest at hand will do. Mr. Blue is already caught on the details, good luck Miss Crimson. I look forward you your next call." The line went out as Colonel hung up the phone and left the sinister vixen to stare up at the sky and emit a venomous laughter. The phone in her paw rang again and she composed herself and brought it to her ear, a smile still chiseled onto her face.

"Darling..."

"Sweetheart..." said Blue in an equally sinister and joyous voice, "Are you ready for this?"

"Of course, Blue," she laughed, "I will take Cooper personally, adieu." She flipped the phone shut after puckering her lips and making a kissing sound into the speaker.

* * *

Carmelita stood in front of a full body mirror, fixing up her curly ebony locks in an elegant manner as she slowly twirled around to examine herself. Her black dress twinkled with the small sparkles that were sown into the fabric as the light from the stars poured into her room from the open window. She slightly cringed at her back as the dress was open backed and clung to her body, showing off maybe a little too much then she would have liked, it was a first date after all. Her ears twitched to the sound of a car coming to a stop in front of the building and a honk from a familiar sounding horn. Grabbing a matching black purse, Carmelita took the elevator down to the first floor and stepped out of the building towards the bright red fifth generation mustang, a black suited feline staring away from her as she approached.

"Booker...?" Her voice caused the ocelot's spotted ears to twitch as he turned around and smiled. His eyes grew wide at the sight of Carmelita as she approached, her heels clicking on the pavement.

"Carmelita, you look...amazing." He drew in a breath as she stepped aside and pulled the door open for her. She smiled and entered the car and he closed the door and jogged around to climb into the driver's seat. The vixen looked up and down at Dorian for a moment and lightly giggled. "What's so funny," he said as he looked himself over and straitened his collar.

"You, look at you. I could hardly recognize you," she smiled and clicked the seat belt onto her. "Your hair is all nice and you even trimmed your facial fur."

"Well I wanted to look nice," he chuckled, "So are you going to tell me where we're going?" The red fox giggled and reached into her purse, pulling out a thin paper that was elegantly decorated. Dorian took the offered parchment and his eyes grew large and his horizontal irises shrank to mere slivers. "C-Carmelita...this is..."

"Yep," she smiled, "You are going to take me to L'oulette."

"I knew it was going to a fancy place, but I had no idea that it would be-

"Is that a problem, Dorian?" She raised an eyebrow and gave a smirked as she patted his shoulder. He turned to her and smiled as he chuckled and clicked on his safety belt. Driving out towards their destination, the ocelot couldn't help but glance out of the corner of his eye at the gorgeous fox to his right. He smile began to grow with each passing minute as they drove down to the famous restaurant.

* * *

"Hey, it's the same red mustang that took her to work." Sly Cooper balanced on the tips of his toes as he zoomed in on the scene with his binoc-u-com. Seeing Carmelita emerge from the apartment building dressed in one of her outfits nearly made his jaw drop from his skull to her beauty. "My god...what's going on?" Seeing a male ocelot standing by the car dressed in formal attire as well made him furrow his brows in puzzlement.

As the car sped away, Sly replaced the binoc-u-com back into his holster and gave chase after the muscle car. It wasn't too difficult to tail, all that horse power and all this traffic didn't mix too well for the driver's plans to make a speedy get away. Sprinting across rooftops and vaulting over gaps of alleyways, the car finally made a stop at a very ritzy looking restaurant. The word "L'oulette" was spelt out in cursive neon red lights as the ocelot opened the door for Carmelita and they both walked into the building. "Well...this is interesting."

Jumping down from the roof, Sly slinked through the shadows of an alleyway and watched through one of the windows as the couple took a seat at a white circular table. A waiter came by and poured them two glasses of a maroon liquid and passed them two menus before he departed. Hearing the elegant music of the piano and an angle voiced woman singing in harmony with the piano's key chimes through the speaker system of his binoc-u-com, Sly zoomed in on the couple to listen in on the conversation.

"...never had the wine here before, better yet I've never been here before." The ocelot spoke as he took a sip of the dark liquid from his glass. Carmelita did the same as they clinked their glasses together.

"I've been here once before," Sly's heart was thumping, was she going to mention his name to the ocelot?

"You have, with anyone in particular?" The raccoon leaned closer as did the feline as they both waited for her to respond.

"Just a good friend of mine, that's all." Sly's jaw dropped open as the air held in his lungs rushed out of his open mouth in a rasp. He felt much like a balloon with all the air let out. Watching the rest of the date from the shadows of the alleyway, he soon discovered the identity of this feline. A Dorian Booker, most likely from the way he carried himself, he was his replacement as Constable and partner of Carmelita. As the meal was finished, they made their way to the dance floor and danced to the fast paced honks of a blues sax and trumpets.

Every moment was quite excruciating for the raccoon. He found himself become increasingly warm and sweaty as the anger began to heat up his body, watching as Carmelita was rather enjoying herself. Once the date was finally over, Cooper took his spot onto the rooftops as he chased down Booker's mustang. Coming to a halt in front of the apartment complex, both Dorian and Carmelita stood by the entrance and stared at one another for a moment. Sly zoomed in and watched as the couple continually glanced at the doorway and then back at one another.

"So...I guess this goodbye," Dorian said through the speakers of Sly's binoc-u-com. "I had a great night with you, Carmelita."

"It was nice, Dorian. You really surprised me." Sly rolled his eyes as the ocelot acted bashful and rubbed the back of his head.

"Well I do try my best, heh." _Oh just shoot me now,_ Cooper thought to himself. His ears perked again to the sound of Carmelita's voice.

"I had a good time with you, Dorian." She paused to think of the right words to say. "I guess I'll see you at work tomorrow."

"Yeah...I guess." They both looked at one another for a moment before Dorian drew in a deep breath. He slowly leaned forward and planted a small kiss on Carmelita's lips. All the fur on Sly's body bristled on end as his eyes opened so wide he thought they would roll right out of their sockets.

"Oh you did not just do that," the raccoon whispered. He switched his gaze towards Carmelita, seeing as she didn't pull away from the kiss, whether she did quite the opposite. She slowly closed her eyes and returned the kiss for a moment before she pulled away and stepped up the concrete steps towards the door.

"Well, goodnight, Dorian. I'll see you in the morning at work." Her voice was slightly quick as she breathed heavily, staring down at him from atop the grey stone steps. Dorian looked as if he was in a trance as he stood there and watched her leave, lifting up a paw to wave goodbye.

"Yeah...see you around...boss ma'am." He slowly turned around as he watched Carmelita disappear into the apartment building and slowly made his way towards his car. He stopped and placed a paw to his lips as he lightly touched them. Turning back to stare at the door of the apartment, he smiled and blew a kiss towards the building before he climbed into his car and rode off. Sly shoved the binoc-u-com into his red holster and crossed his arms, bending his knees to squat on that one spot atop his perch for a moment.

What the hell just happened? That was Carmelita, dating of all things. She just didn't go out on a date, she was different then that. And yet there she was, going out on a date with a partner she knew for about what, a month? It took him almost three until the policemen's ball when she finally accepted his kiss. He brought his eyebrows down and glared at the ground as the rumbling of storm clouds above him made him glance up.

A rain drop spackled on the end of his nose and he cringed as he sighed. Rain poured down so he pulled out the brown trench coat he wore when at the airport to ward off the rain drops. Placing a matching brown fedora hat for his disguise, he shoved his cap into the coat and stuffed his paws into the pockets of the trench coat and walked down the sidewalk. "She kissed him...she kissed him," he kept repeating as he paced back and forth on the deserted sidewalk. "She kissed him...how could she kiss him?"

He stopped his pacing as he glanced up from the floor and continued walking. His ears perked up as he heard a small noise from behind him and he turned around. The sloshing of boot soles in the rain caught his attention as he looked up to see a red clad vixen with blazing crimson fur. "Oh, Charles, hello," Natalie shouted over the rain as she came jogging up to him, "How are you? Some weather we're having, aren't we?"

Her joyful expression changed as she noticed his depressed looking face. "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, Natalie, hi, it's nothing, no need to worry," The vixen smiled and patted the side of his face, sending shivers down his body and making his fur stand on end from goose bumps.

"Mind if I walk with you, I've got no where to be in particular. I just like walking out in the rain." She slipped her gloved paw into his; he didn't tear it away in the slightest. She squeezed it and he squeezed back as they walked together. Stopping near an alleyway, she slipped her paw out of his and turned around slowly, looking up at him with those intense eyes of hers.

She slowly smiled and brought a paw to his face again. "You have very lovely eyes," she whispered, "I really like them."

"Um, t-thank you, you have nice eyes too, Natalie." He drew in a breath as she moved closer to him, pressing her body closer to his and causing his eyes to grow wide and look away.

"Don't you just love the rain? How it makes things sparkle and look so beautiful?" She pulled away and slowly twirled around in the rain like a ballerina. She spun every gorgeous inch of her around for him to see, his eyes glued to her curvaceous and luscious form. He focused on her voice as it cut through the clouds in his mind and made him take his eyes off her hips for a moment.

"It makes everything so beautiful," she walked closer to him and placed a paw on his chest, "Do you think I'm beautiful, Charley? Do you mind if I call you that?" Sly's mouth hung open for a moment as he looked down at her sparkling eyes.

"I...y-yes, you can call me Charley, and yes...you are very beautiful." What did he just say? His eyes grew big again as he caught himself. You love Carmelita you dolt, you love her. She's the beautiful woman of your dreams.

But from what he saw transpire earlier this night, he felt an urge to do something very radical. He wanted some payback, he was too angry to think rationally. Why should Carmelita go around kissing whoever she wants while he's treated like garbage left to lie out in the rain and be stepped on? Natalie placed both paws on Sly's shoulders and leaned up to plant a fiery kiss upon his lips. He didn't pull away, he didn't resist in the slightest.

He took both his paws and cupped the sides of her face and pushed deeper into the kiss, her lips parting and her pink tongue probing his lips to gain entry. They both moved into the abandoned alley as she pushed him up against the wall and pressed her body against his. The rain came down in a flurry, drenching them to the bone and making their fur shine and sparkle in the night. He parted his mouth and her velvet soft and warm tongue dueled along with his own. She slowly pulled away and licked her lips as she slid the red dyed leather coat from her body, it slid off her perfect form and piled onto the rain soaked floor under them.

Sly glanced down, seeing a mountain of cleavage from her chest as she slowly unbuttoned her red collared shirt. He was pushed up against the brick wall of the alley again as she kissed him passionately again and slid the trench coat off from his shoulders to pool onto the floor beside her red one. "Do you wish to have me, Charley," she whispered as she nuzzled his neck and buried her nose into the fur under his chin, "Because you can, you can do whatever you'd like to me. I'm yours." He sucked in a breath as she reached up and slid the fedora from his head and ran her fingers through the spiky tufts of hair on his head. Sly sighed as he shut his eyes and was pressed against the wall with Natalie pushing against his body, her form slick and slippery with moisture.

She cooed softly as she licked the side of his face and grinded her hips against his. Sly gasped as he felt her moist tongue slide up the side of his face and he fought against his body as his paws slowly ran down the vixen's sides and rested on her hips. The images of Carmelita laughing and kissing Dorian flooded his vision, making his blood boil and he gave in and gripped Natalie's hips. Feeling the rain run down his neck and trail down his spine made him tingle and grunt as he sighed in comfort with Natalie's roaming paws. "You can have me, Charley...anyway you choose. You're in charge."

He leaned forward and clutched her back as he shoved his mouth into hers and she moaned and curled her arms around his neck, his paws rubbing against her soft and slippery body. Reaching down, she unbuttoned the rest of her shirt and the light as a feather fabric drifted to the floor. She reached down and felt for the raccoon's belt as she unfastened it and began sliding it out of the belt loops on his grey pants. As his belt came free, Sly pulled away from her mouth and pressed up against the wall again. "Wait, wait," he gasped, "I can't do this."

"Yes you can...I don't mind," she whispered as she continued unbuttoning his pants and slowly pulling down on the zipper. "I think it's the perfect spot, with the perfect man."

"No, I mean..." he trailed off as more angry images of Carmelita and Dorian flooded his mind, "I mean I can't...I promised myself I wouldn't."

"What do you mean," she asked looking up at him as she crashed to her knees and pulled the flaps of his pants back as she finished unzipping them, "I didn't see a ring on that finger of yours. Who waits for marriage these days?"

"No I-I can't, Natalie. You're very beautiful, and from what I saw tonight I wouldn't mind in the least to continue where this is going. But I simply can't...it isn't right."

"Since when is anything right in this wild world we live in?" She slid back up to stare at him face to face as she lapped the side of his muzzle with her tongue again. "I don't care, I want you Charles...I need you." Sly's heart pounded like a jackhammer, he was praying it wouldn't burst from his chest with how hard it pounded. He tried to pull away from her muzzle but it proved useless as he melted into another kiss from her fiery sweet lips.

Feeling her bare breasts push against his chest caused him to heave and breathe deep, her tongue trailing around his lips as she slowly pulled away and clutched the bottom of his sweater, slowly peeling it off of his body. Bringing both paws to his bare chest, she ran her fingers through his damp fur and dug her claws into his back as she raked them slowly up and down. Sly drew in a breath and glanced down at the glossy fur of her chest that was slick with rain water, the two globes that were pressed against his chest also caught his attention until he forced himself to look away. "Natalie, please, I can't..."

"Yes you can, don't be scared, enjoy yourself. I know I will." Her hot breath poured into his ear as she whispered lovingly into it. He shivered again and panted as he shut his eyes and muttered to himself. _You can't do this, you can't do this, don't do this. _

_You love Carmelita and only Carmelita, how can you do this to her?_ His mind screamed at him until he couldn't stand the sounds any longer. Grasping her shoulders, Sly gently pushed Natalie's body off of his and held her there as she stared at him in puzzlement. "If it's your first time, I understand. I'm nervous too, but don't worry I-

"No, Natalie it isn't that...I just can't do this," he stated firmly yet gently, "I promised my heart to someone else. I can't do this to her."

"She won't appreciate you as much as I will! No woman can give you what you deserve. None...except for me, if you give me a chance." Coming back towards him, she slid a leg up to wrap around his side as she wormed out of her black pants, exposing a rather thin pair of panties that accentuated her round curvaceous rump.

"Natalie...I can't," he sighed as he rested both his paws on her shoulders, "I'm sorry." Natalie glanced down at the floor for a moment and shut her eyes. Then, slowly looking back up, she gently placed her paw around his neck and gently stroked his fur. She dropped her leg down from curling around his torso and pulled her pants back up.

"Not as sorry as you're going to be, Mr. Cooper." Sly's eyes grew big as he felt Natalie's grip tighten around his throat and the icy edge of a knife press against his neck. He gagged slightly to her grip tightening and he followed the gleaming knife's blade with his eyes as it danced menacingly around his muzzle and face. "I wanted to have a little fun before things went south if you understand my meaning," her voice changed from the sweet tone to a more sinister sounding, "But you being such a saint and all, well I must confess, it really disappointed me. Here I thought I'd meet the Casanova, thee ladies man of ladies men, Sly Cooper."

She trailed her paw down to his groin and roughly squeezed, causing him to cringe and grunt in mild agony. "And what do I find," with each passing word, her sharp as nails grip tightened, "I find a weak, gutless, spineless, crotchless pansy filth who's too proud, too pure to even indulge himself in simple pleasures for fear that his lady love will not approve. I offer you heaven, and you spit in my face, you should thank me for offering you what I could give you before I end your life."

"No," he grunted, "You're the filth...trying to get the first guy you see to penetrate you. You're not a woman...you're a vile, tongue swallowing, venom spitting succubus." Her intense eyes grew larger to the sting of his insult.

"W-what did you call me?!"

"Oh you heard me the first time, witch." Sly grunted and cringed as he held back tears from her crushing grip on the precious spot between his legs. He laughed through the pain and gave a cocky smirk. "C'mon, you call that foreplay? My love is ten times more adventurous and rough then you'll ever be, Natalie." Grunting again, Natalie lifted him up off the floor by his loins and shoved him up against the brick wall as she danced the tip of the knife around under his chin and on his neck.

"I am not Natalie," she sneered, her eyes flashing in a sinister almost demonic stare, "My name is Scarlet Crimson, the woman who shall end your life." Still standing in the rain without a shirt, despite having a knife held up to his chin, Sly couldn't take his eyes off her. More actually he couldn't take his eyes off her chest. Sliding a tendril of damp red hair from her face, she smirked and leaned closer to lick the side of his face one last time, trailing her tongue up to his ear as she gripped the spot in-between his legs again. "You taste wonderful, shame I can't dine on the full course meal."

"Scarlet," Sly grunted, "You couldn't even afford the appetizer."


	10. What could it Hurt?

**Chapter 10**

**What could it Hurt?**

* * *

_Author's note: I'd like to take a moment before we kick off with the latest chapter in our tale. Thanks to my new beta IgnorantOne, and his brilliant ideas, I've been able to bring you chapters 9 and 10 of our story. I wanted to take this moment to give him the credit he deserves, thank you IgnorantOne for your ideas and inspiration._

_-Tex_

* * *

**T**he rain came down like a tidal wave. It was a dark, dreary, end of the world kind of rain. A kind of rain that could only be described as if a sharp axe head had slashed open the sky and it was spilling out every ounce of water it held. It was a depressing sight, but he didn't feel it in the least. Dorian Booker loosened his grip on the steering wheel of his car and relaxed his shoulders as the bones settled into their sockets a bit more comfortably.

He sighed, his lips turned up in a light smile. Tonight was incredible, it was perfect. Perfect, everyone always says there's no such thing as perfect, but that was the only word out there to describe this night without taking hours upon hours to explain just how special it felt. The windshield wipers were working overtime, swiping to and fro against the glossy face of the glass, but failed to make the road that much more visible. He decided he would never get home in this torrent, not in one piece at least.

Glancing around, he found the inviting glow of a neon sign that coaxed him to park in the lot. Glancing out of the driver side window, he identified this place to be a bar, a rather shabby looking bar, but a bar none the less. Dorian smirked as he turned off the engine and sat in his car, staring out at the glowing sign. Maybe a few drinks would be ok. He wanted to celebrate the night off with a good brew or two while the rain died down, what could it hurt?

Stepping out of the car's protective shelter, he flipped up the collar of his coat and covered his head as he dashed for the door. Stepping into the dark, brick laden walls of the drinking establishment, Dorian shook his coat to shake off the loose droplets of rain and glanced around as he took a seat at the bar table. Tapping his fingers on the table, the bartender slowly turned around as she continued polishing a glass with a white rag. "Hey, how ya doing," Dorian smiled, "got anything good in this place?" The barkeep, a middle aged Shepard cracked her knuckles and leaned a bit closer to the feline.

"What are you in the mood for, sir?" Her voice was about as accommodating as her expression, mildly angered

"Hmm, well...how bout a beer," Dorian said as he continued to keep the smile on his face.

"All we got is Amber Crystal. Everything else is the hard stuff."

"What a surprise, that's my brand," the ocelot pointed a finger at the Shepard while forming his paw like a gun with his thumb pointing strait up. "Give me an Amber Crystal, please." The dog grunted as she pulled down on the handle next to her and placed the empty beer mug under the nozzle. An amber liquid poured into the glass and it slid towards Dorian's paw. "Thanks miss," he lifted up the glass and took a gulp of the drink.

Licking his lips as he pulled away, he set the glass down and sighed. "Not bad, whoever makes this should sell it out to the public."

* * *

The rain continued spattering against the hull of the mustang as the water slid off the smooth metal surface. A soft click sounds, muffled by the torrent of falling rain as the trunk from the mustang slowly lifts open. A pair of glowing blue eyes could be seen in the shadows of the trunk as a darkened form crawls out of the back of the car. Popping open an umbrella, Mr. Blue closes the trunk behind him and sniffs the rain drenched air about him. His nose twitched to the scent of his prey and he casually walked towards the bar entrance that was behind him.

Closing the umbrella, Blue panned his gaze about the bar until the ice blue eyes locked onto a familiar looking feline. Smirking, he slowly walked by the ocelot and took a seat near him. "Stoli martini, two olives, please," the malamute held up two fingers as he requested the extra olive. The bright eyed dog made the Shepard glance away for a moment, and then began mixing his drink.

"Sure thing, handsome, coming right up," Dorian glanced to his left as he raised his glass again at the dog that sat next to him. His coat rested on his shoulders as he refused to slip his arms through the sleeves and simply let it drape over him. He was also dressed in a rigid blue sweater and a pair of black dress pants with a silver buckled black leather belt. As the drink was presented to him, he smiled and winked one of his intense blue eyes at the barmaid who smiled and quickly turned back to polishing beer mugs. "Thank you, Josie."

The barmaid glanced down at her name tag that was pinned to her shirt and blushed slightly. Blue merely grinned and took a sip of his drink. After setting the glass down, the malamute turned around and addressed the ocelot sitting next to him. "Quite a storm we're having tonight." Dorian glanced to his left and chuckled. "No doubt, haven't seen it this bad for a long time."

"Care for a cigarette," the dog said as he slid out a small cardboard box with the top opened up. Dorian glanced down at the white sticks and shook his head.

"No thank you, I don't smoke."

"Ah, well mind if I..."

"Oh, go ahead, its fine." Flipping open a silver colored lighter, the dog burned the tip of his cigarette and took a pull before letting the cloud of smoke slither out of his mouth. Blue looked back at the feline and noticed his rather joyous expression. "Rarely do I ever see anyone so happy during a storm quite like this. Care to explain, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Hmm, oh," Dorian caught himself smiling as he was daydreaming, "It's just that tonight couldn't have been more perfect."

"You don't say?"

"Yep," the ocelot said as he took another gulp of his drink. "I just happened to be on my way back from having a wonderful time with a very lovely woman." Blue leaned a bit closer as he took another sip from his martini.

"Really, quite the lucky man you are. How was she?" Dorian stammered for a bit as he coughed from his drink sliding down his throat as he drew back.

"No, no, it wasn't like that. I just came back from taking her out on a date, our first together actually."

"Ah, my mistake, please continue. Who is this wondrous woman of yours?"

"Who is she? She's the goddess, living proof that angels exist in this world of ours." He sighed as he finished off the last of his drink and frowned as he looked down inside the empty glass. The malamute reached into his coat and withdrew a few euros.

"Here, let me pay for this one." Taking the mug, he passed it to Dorian who raised his glass and nodded in the dog's direction.

"Thanks pal."

"Think nothing of it, helping you is about as equal as helping myself." The dog smirked in knowing as he watched the feline gulp down the liquid once more before returning to his story.

"Now, I'm not one to kiss and tell, but it's hard not to share about this," he shrugged his shoulders and smirked a little. "Her name's Carmelita, probably the most beautiful creature you could ever lay eyes on."

"She's that gorgeous?"

"That and more, bud. I tell you...when we kissed...it was like...I can't even describe it."

"Come now, you have to give me something to work with here." As the feline was about to speak, there was a crash behind the two animals and Dorian glanced behind him to see that a waitress had dropped a glass onto the floor. A few grunts and some laughter ensued from the rougher looking bar goers. Blue smiled, the perfect time. Slipping out two small pills, he dropped them into the glass of the feline's mug and they dissolved almost instantly with no hint of them ever being there.

Dorian slowly turned back and shook his head with a light smile on his face. "Poor, lady has to deal with those drunken buffoons all day."

"I can understand her situation," Blue said truthfully, he was dealing with a steadily drunken buffoon himself. Watching in amusement as Dorian drank the last of his mug; Blue finished his martini and continued conversing with the feline. "So, about this girl, what is her full name? Do you know?"

"Oh sure," Dorian said in a giddy sounding voice. "She's Carmelita Montoya Fox, one of the best Inspectors of Interpol I've ever seen. She's been breaking records and setting the standards for cops since she first got the job. I've only known her for about a month or so, but she's incredible at what she does." This was proving so easy that it almost hurt.

The feline naturally couldn't stop talking, and with that little added sodium pentothal he just ingested, this would be quite simple. Blue continued to listen. "We've been partners for the whole month; she thinks I was a bumbling idiot until I saved her life from some crazy maniac with silver teeth. Women, I tell you they are something else sometimes, but I don't care, everyone thinks I'm a bumbling idiot, hell, I think I even talk too much."

"Really, I haven't the slightest clue from where you could get that idea." Blue continued to listen as he jotted down notes on the little notepad in his paws from under the folds of his coat. A long tendril of smoke wafted off the tip of the cigarette that he held in his lips. "My, how rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Indigo, Indigo Blue," Blue held out a paw and clasped together with Dorian's in a handshake.

"Dorian Booker, nice to meet ya. Indigo, that's a funny name, Indigo."

"It's a shade of blue."

"Hehe, so your name's Blue, Blue?" The malamute rolled his eyes and blew two geysers of smoke from his nostrils as he sighed.

"This Carmelita woman, she sounds incredible from what you tell me."

"Ah yeah, she is. We kissed earlier this night and it was the best thing I've ever experienced. No other woman had ever given me a kiss like that."

"You know, I've had quite a few good ones myself."

"Yeah, well don't leave me in the dark, what happened?"

"Well," Blue said as he took one last pull on his cigarette and crushed it into an ashtray. "I never was one for serious relationships, and all these girls ever talked about were children and marriage. But this one lady I met, she was the one for me, almost as if God crafted her just for me."

"Well, c'mon, what's her name?"

"Her name is Scarlet, the only woman who was ever good enough for me. We met a few years ago, during that time I was in the...missing persons business. There she was, a new recruit fresh off the streets and looking to prove herself, partnering up with me so I could

show her the ropes. She showed me quite a few things herself." Blue smirked and licked his lips at the past memories that flashed before him.

"Well," said Booker, "I'm happy for ya, found the one person you've been looking for."

"Thank you," Blue glanced at the barkeep and gestured her towards them. "Excuse me, Josie, my friend and I would like to have a shot of whisky, please." Booker quirked an eyebrow as a bottle of dark liquid was passed to the dog along with two shot glasses. Pouring both glasses full of the alcohol, he passed one to the feline and he raised it to him. "To our women," he said as he slammed back the drink and sighed as he clicked the glass onto the table.

Booker took the drink and looked down at the small bubbles that drifted up to the top of the dark brown drink. "To a great night," he said as he slammed it back as well. Filling their glasses again, Blue took another shot as did Booker. Though Blue appeared completely unfazed by the alcohols effects, Dorian was beginning to show hints of weakness. "So," Blue said, "how about we get you home."

"Hehe, sure...'hic' ah but I can't drive...not like...this." Booker attempted to stand as he leaned against the bar table. He was quite the lightweight. Blue thought that the feline must not drink very often; this will only sweeten the plot for him. Steadying the wobbling ocelot, Blue led him out of the door and to his car.

"Here, I'll drive. I walked here so no need to worry about leaving my car behind." Booker reached into his pocket and dropped his keys into the malamute's paw and he helped him into the passenger seat. "So, where is your home?"

"No, wait," Blue glanced at Dorian as he stifled a belch by cupping his paws over his muzzle. "The rain's too harsh out there. You'll get into an accident for sure. Take me to Carmelita's. She'll probably let me crash at her place."

"Very well, oh and one last thing," Blue pulled out his notepad once more and rested the tip of his dark blue pen against the pale yellow paper. "Does Miss Fox have any security systems or anything that we should be worried about?"

"Hmm," Dorian thought as he brought a paw to his chin. "She's got a forty-five automatic stuffed under her mattress, other then that, I think we won't have to worry about any buckets of water falling on us when we open the door, hehehe." Dorian gave a loud hiccup as he lurched forward. Blue started up the engine and automatically, the windshield wipers began their routine from swiping back and forth against the glass. Shifting back the gear, Blue glanced behind him as he backed up and drove out of the lot.

"So, where is her apartment?" Blue glanced at the inebriated ocelot who lazily stared out the window. He looked back at the dog and thought once more.

"Oh, umm, yeah, keep going down this road and make a left. Then, uh...her apartment building is to the left after a few blocks."

"Good, we should be there momentarily," Blue caught himself smiling as the muscles in his cheeks pulled and stretched along with his curving lips. Glancing out the window, he turned the wheel abruptly as Dorian pointed at the building where Carmelita made residence. Blue parked into an empty spot in the lat and stepped out of the car. Opening the passenger door, before he pulled out Dorian, Blue opened the glove box and shifted around a few loose papers before his paw curled around something cold and hard. Pulling out the polished metal twenty-two caliber revolver, he flicked his wrist and snapped open the cylinder.

Seeing six bullets loaded into each hole, Blue's smile only widened as he placed the pistol into his coat pocket and grasped Dorian by the collar of his coat. "Come on, lightweight. Let's go see that girl of yours." Grunting as he helped the staggering feline to his feet, they slowly made their way to the door as Blue gently smacked the side of Dorian's face a few times. "What is her room number?"

"Huh, oh," Dorian slurred, "Numbers, um, three O three."

"Thank you," Blue stated as he punched in the number on the small keyboard and waited for a voice on the other side of the speaker to respond.

"Hello," said a feminine voice. "Who is this?"

"Hello, Carmelita Fox is it?" Blue hefted Dorian so that he stood up a bit straighter.

"Yes, this is she."

"Well, Miss Fox, my name is Mr. Blue. I have someone with me who you surely know from how he has been talking about you all night." Dorian's head lifted as he focused on the voice from the intercom.

"Hey, boss ma'am," he chuckled, "I had a good time tonight, did you like it?"

"Dorian, Dorian is that you? You sound drunk."

"Oh c'mon, I'm f-fine." The sounds of his words didn't reassure her. Hearing a buzz from the entrance, Blue glanced to his left and then listened in on the voice from the other line.

"I opened the door for you. My room is three O three."

"Thank you, Miss Fox," Blue spoke into the intercom. "We'll be up momentarily." Taking his finger off the intercom, he hefted the feline and helped him into the elevator where they rode it up to the third floor. Blue glanced down to find Dorian humming the melody from the elevator's speaker system as they rose up to their destination. A ding sounded as the doors parted and Blue took a left down the hallway until the tow animals found the room with the numbers "303" nailed into the door.

Knocking three times on the wood barrier, Blue could hear soft footsteps from the other side as the door was pulled open. A very attractive vixen with red and orange fur greeted him and Dorian. Carmelita Fox stood in the doorway, dressed in a white robe that hugged her shapely figure quite well. Blue couldn't help but glance down at the slight exposed area of Carmelita's chest. "Ahem," the dog cleared his throat, "Sorry to bother you, Miss Fox."

She folded her arms in front of her and glanced down at Booker. He lazily hung his head and he began to snore. She rolled her eyes and gestured for the two to enter. "Here, get him up on the couch." Taking his feet, she helped Blue lift the limp body onto the sofa as Carmelita took off his coat and shoes. "He shouldn't be much trouble now," she chided, "Sorry you had to deal with this, he normally doesn't drink this much as far as I know."

"No need, I'm partially to blame," Blue held up a paw as if to defend Booker's situation. "We both met at the bar and he began talking about the great night he had with you tonight." Carmelita glanced at the sleeping ocelot for a moment, and then looked back towards the malamute.

"I see,"

"It was nothing too personal. He just told me that he thought it was a great date the two of you had together. He spoke very highly of you. You should feel very flattered by his words."

"I'm not susceptible to flattery," she stated matter-of-factly, "Do you need anything while you're here?"

"Just a towel to dry off, if it isn't too much trouble," he smiled in a friendly manner. Carmelita glanced over her shoulder and pointed to the bathroom. Blue gave a nod and passed through the door into the next room. On his way, he took a detour from the bathroom and made his way towards the bedroom of Miss Fox's apartment. Sniffing about, he shoved his arm in-between the mattresses and clasped a nickel platted forty-five automatic pistol.

Pulling back the bridge, he detached it from the handle and slipped out the cartridge from under the handle and tossed the weapon away. With that taken care of, he headed for the bathroom. Blue stopped as he caught something from the corner of his eye, being the rather devious one that he was, he was surprised he didn't catch this sooner, a pair of thin panties sat by the pillow on the bed. The sight caused the malamute to grin and flash a row of teeth.

* * *

"Come now, turtledove, we don't want to keep Saint Peter waiting for your arrival." Scarlet Crimson slid her velvet tongue against the blade of her knife as she twirled it in her paw and grasped it with the tip pointing down. Sly thought for a moment and swallowed his pride for what he was about to do. Slamming his knee into Scarlet's shin, she staggered from the blow and gasped as Sly grasped her wrist and twisted it, causing her to drop the knife. Coming to stand behind her, he held both of her paws behind her back and reached down for her shirt.

Slipping the fabric back onto her, he buttoned the red shirt up to her neckline and pinned her up against the wall, taking care not to injure her by pushing against her chest. "Oh, I think he would be just fine if I stayed here just a little longer."

"A good trick, love, if only you moved that quickly and fierce a few moments ago," With her bare feet, she clasped the knife handle in-between her toes and lifted her leg to swipe at the raccoon's torso. A long slash through the front of Sly's sweater marred him as he jumped back. "You think you've won just because you had me up against the wall? Oh honey, I've been pinned down so many times, I could break out of a headlock in my sleep."

"Come on, Scarlet. You and I both know that you've only broken out of maybe half of all the times you were pinned down." Her gaze began to match her fur, a killer red fire burned in her irises as she quickly swiped at Sly with her knife. The raccoon leaned back as he supported his weight with his paws and feet. Then, leaning farther back, he lifted his feet off the ground and stood on his paws as his feet caught Scarlet under the chin.

He can hate himself later for hurting a woman, right now he just wanted to survive the night. Diving for the coat on the floor, Sly clutched the pole of his cane that was hidden within the folds of the fabric. Flipping it up, he stopped the blow of the knife from driving into his neck and he pushed Scarlet back and out of the narrow alleyway. Now he had more room to maneuver, but so did she, and she was prone to wide swipes with her blade. Glancing down, Sly saw that her legs were parted and her foot turned slightly as she lunged for him.

Watching her movements, he was able to counter effectively, only for him to be caught off guard as she tossed the knife towards the raccoon. The blade sailed after him as he leaned out of the way, leaving himself open for a moment as Scarlet rushed after him and slammed her knee into his stomach and lifted her leg skyward, bringing it down like an executioner's axe to flatten the raccoon to the floor. "Keep your eyes open, love," the vixen chided, "Your lady friend wouldn't like it if your body was swollen and covered in bruises now would she?"

She lifted her leg up and brought it down again, only for Sly to cross his forearms and block the blow as he flipped himself back onto his feet. Hooking his cane onto her knee, he tugged and forced her leg to bend and make her stagger. He then knocked the blunt side of the hook against her ankle, causing her to yelp in pain as both feet lost stability and she tumbled to the floor. Lifting her up, Sly brought his cane to her neck and wrapped his arms around it to keep her pinned. "Enough," he panted over the roar of the rain. "You have to stop this."

"No! You have to die! I want you to die, Cooper!" She struggled and kicked, only for the raccoon to place his feet in front of hers and locked her legs into place. Scarlet gagged as the pole of the cane pushed against her throat with a little more force and she finally stopped thrashing. "Oh, just kill me, I don't care anymore," she said in a sorrowful tone. She sounded as if she were choking back tears as Sly took the cane away from her neck and simply held her arms from behind her.

"No one is going to die, not tonight. Let me just help you, ok?" Sly's grip loosened from the vixen and he allowed her to turn and face him.

"I was supposed to kill you, it was my job. If I don't then I'll...they'll kill me! I don't know what to do, please, help me!" She clutched Sly's chest and dug her fingers into his sweater. Sly clutched her wrists gently and pulled her off of him.

"It'll be ok, we'll get you help, I promise."

"Oh Sly, thank you, thank you, you're such a sweet man." She rested her head against his chest for a moment and pulled her wrists from his paws. "Sweet, but stupid," Clutching the raccoon's throat, she coiled her fingers around his esophagus and made him gag. Forcing him onto the floor, Sly tensed his neck and tried to breathe as he pushed against the vixen's face to tear her off him. His eyes grew big, was it the end?

It couldn't be, not with what he had to do. Not with so much unfinished business that needed to be taken care of. No air to breathe, his lungs aching for just an ounce as a white light appeared, was he really dying? No, no it wasn't the glow of the after life, the glow of a car's headlights! Scarlet looked up and stared towards her left as the car came closer to the two animals in the road.

Taking this time, Sly slammed his knee into Scarlet's side and broke away from her grip. Jumping away from her, she ran after him to evade the car that rushed towards her. Sly's eyes grew big as he watched her form lurch and a sickening thud echoed through his ears. He looked away and climbed up the side of a building, clutching the loose bricks that stuck out slightly and cramming his fingers into the gaps of stone until he stood atop the roof. The car gave a banshee scream as the breaks halted the vehicle.

The drive opened his door and jumped out quickly, glancing at the front of his car to see the bumper crushed, yet there was no body, not even a spot of blood. Sly watched through his binoc-u-com for any sign of Scarlet, only for a blur of movement to catch out of the corner of his eye. His brown eyes landed on a red clad vixen, clutching her arm as she stared up at him with the fiery red glow in her eyes. Sly stared back down at her from the edge of the rooftop and watched as she walked back towards the cover of the shadows, melting into the darkness and out of sight. Sly continued to look for a moment as the rain slapped against him, yet he didn't move.

Staggering away, he clutched his torso as he grunted and slowly made his way back to the hideout. Glancing back over his shoulder, he looked to the sea of lights from the rooftop that was grayed and groggy from the clouds and the rain. "Scarlet," he said into the roaring wind and rain, "I'm sorry I couldn't helpyou...you poor, sad creature."

* * *

Carmelita placed her paws on her hips and shook her head for what had to be the hundredth time. She watched as the slumbering Booker snored as his chest rose and fell with his breathing. The funny looking grin he held on his lips made it difficult to stay mad at him for too long, Carmelita always knew he would be a funny drunk. Turning back, she headed for the door to her room. As she reached for the handle, the door opened up and out stepped the malamute that accompanied Dorian when he arrived.

She lightly gasped in surprise as he stood directly in front of her, his face drawn up in a grin. "Mr. Blue, you startled me." Seeing as he simply looked at her and didn't reply made her uneasy. "Move please," she stated in an annoyed tone. His irises moved downward for a moment, causing her to glance down and see just why he was acting the way he did.

The silvery glint of the small revolver held in his paw made her gaze widen as the barrel pointed directly towards her. "Now, Miss Fox, I believe you know where the situation has gone from here," his smile widened as each word slid off his tongue. "Sit." Carmelita did as commanded. "Good girl."

"So, you another hired gun," she sighed. "Or are you just another idiot to disturb me in the middle of the night?"

"Now Miss Fox," Blue said as he clicked back the hammer of the gun. "Such talk will be the death of you. You must be a daddy's girl when you were growing up. Did your father teach you to talk in such a way?" The furrowing of Carmelita's brows was the only response to his question. "Now I'm not one to leave a question unanswered, I just hate mysteries. I am Indigo Blue, hired by a man of very high standings in the organized crime department to kill you, Dorian Booker, and my associate has probably finished with a certain master thief that I am sure has been causing you and your fellow police officers quite a bit of trouble."

Carmelita's eyes grew wide at the small remark concerning who could only be Sly Cooper. Her ears twitched to his voice as he continued to elaborate. "Thanks to your friend here," he gestured towards Dorian on the couch. His head lying near Carmelita's left leg as he snored. "I've been able to find your apartment, disable any chance of you to retaliate, oh speaking of which, the gun in your bedroom will no longer play a part in this I'm afraid. And I was lucky enough to get both of you in the same place, I swear I should buy a lottery ticket tonight with all the luck I've been having. The police will find you the next day. Performing the autopsy, they'll find traces of mental stimulating drugs and alcohol in Dorian's system. It will be as if I never even existed, they'll even match the bullets to the good constable's firearm. "

"Would you please stop," Carmelita's voice caused him to blink a few times as he stopped chuckling. "You're beginning to sound like every bad guy in every movie ever made. You know, villain's biggest flaw is when they can easily kill their foes, yet they waste time flapping their gums while the hero devises a plan of escape or something happens and distracts the villain, giving the hero time to retaliate."

"My, quite the infuriating little wretch aren't you? Very well, since you wish for me to end your life," he raised the gun towards her forehead and slowly began to depress the trigger. A sudden beeping from his pocket caught his attention as he glanced down and pulled out his cell phone. A new text message icon flashed on the screen and he glanced at Carmelita, keeping the gun trained on her as he read the message. His eyes grew and his brows rose as he read the message.

The automated messaging system that informed him and Miss Crimson of their situation caused the message to be delivered automatically. The words claimed that Scarlet had been severely injured and that she needed immediate assistance. Flipping the phone shut, he glanced back up to see a fist coming straight for his face. Rearing back from the punch, Carmelita grabbed for the gun and grappled with the dog for control of the situation. "Told you, dumbass, villain's greatest flaw is not killing their foe when they had the perfect chance."

"Bitch, you'll pay dearly," his words were stifled by another punch to his muzzle. The malamute's expertise wasn't in physical combat; the fact that he was a male fighting against a female at least gave him a little bit of an advantage over Carmelita for his higher level of strength. Carmelita however has taken down hundreds of men twice this dog's size in her career. Bringing her knee to slam against the dog's flank, Blue grunted and staggered to the bruising of his ribs. Wrenching the gun from his paw, Carmelita swung her heel to catch Blue in the face.

"You like that, pretty boy," she snapped as she hopped on the tips of her toes in a fighting stance. "Not so tough without a gun in your paw are you?"

"Oh you'll find I'm quite capable without it." Blue pulled out a small handheld device in his paw and quickly depressed the trigger. The oddly shaped device sprayed a thick smoke like substance into the vixen's face and caused her to gag and cough as she slammed her eyes shut. Blue moved out of the gun's sights and laughed as he circled around the vixen. "You have just been drugged with a very powerful panic inducing hallucinogen," he chuckled.

"You'll find that soon you won't be able to believe your own eyes." Carmelita's vision was slightly blurry as she opened her eyes. The sound of Blue's voice sounded somewhat otherworldly as it echoed and felt as if it came from all directions in her intoxicated state. "Quite impressive, it targets the section of the brain that controls emotion. You might start to feel a little...scared."

As if on que, Carmelita's heart began to race as vision flashed before her eyes. They were very painful to witness. The walls around her began to melt and crack, the large tears in the wall were lined with teeth as they chomped and roared at her. "This is all a hallucination," she shouted, "Don't fall for it, Carmelita."

"Right, all a hallucination," hearing Blue's voice, she screamed as she saw a monstrosity clutch her by the throat and pin her against the wall. Indigo Blue stood there, the image of the once handsome dog was gone. Instead Carmelita saw a dog with glowing blue eyes, and no skin. The skin was completely gone, revealing the bulging pink and red masses of muscle tissue and a network of veins that pumped tar black blood through their transparent snake like bodies. A green acidic saliva dripped from his mouth as a slithering forked tongue wiggled around in his gapping, fang filled mouth.

"All a hallucination, just keep telling yourself that, Miss Fox," His chuckling was like the sound of nails scratching against chalk board. Carmelita glanced down at the revolver clutched in her paw; the gun looked relatively normal by her standards as she lifted it up and hurriedly fired a shot into the unholy monster's shoulder. Letting out a howling scream, Blue clutched his shoulder and drew back. Flashing a glowing blue from his eyes, he growled at Carmelita and made for the door, kicking it open and sprinting down the hallway. Carmelita slid against the wall as she crashed to the floor, breathing heavily as she closed her eyes to try and stop the torrent of painful images.

Feeling something touch her, she gasped and kicked. Then, hearing a voice that didn't belong to the beast she just fired at, she cracked open an eye. "Carmelita, are you ok?" Dorian Booker looked relatively normal, aside from the fact that his spots began sliding off his fur and pooling onto the floor. The fox lunged at Booker and wrapped her arms around his neck as she whimpered and coughed.

Dorian, feeling the after effects of the alcohol, grunted as his head slightly throbbed. Sitting Carmelita onto the couch, Dorian held the vixen in his arms as she hid her face in his embrace, afraid to witness what Dorian was mutating into. She simply had to wait for the drugs to work its way out of her system.

* * *

Stepping into the shadows of an alleyway, Indigo Blue clutched his shoulder as blood trickled from the hole. Hearing the shuffling of feet as the rain began to die down, he readied his gas sprayer and pressed himself against the wall as he inched closer. Jumping out into the open with his weapon ready, he froze as he saw Scarlet Crimson jump out in front of him with her knife drawn. Seeing who it was, they both sheathed their weapons and looked one another over. "I see you've had about as much success as I have this night, darling."

"And I see you neglected to button your pants, good god, Scarlet." The red vixen furrowed her brows and flattened her ears as she fidgeted with her pants.

"At least I wasn't stupid enough to get myself shot. You were monologing again weren't you? I've told you a thousand times to stop talking and simply kill the person you're meant to kill!" Blue sighed.

"Not this conversation again," he growled. "You failed about as much as I have, by the way you carry your arm I'd say you've broken it. Bravo, sweetheart, bravo."

"Enough," she snapped as she jabbed the tip of her knife into the hole of Blue's shoulder, flicking her wrist and popping out the bullet from the wound; the malamute hissed in pain. "You hot head! You always have to make a complete fool of yourself!"

"At least I don't bend over backwards for the first person I see!" Both animals stared at one another for a long time, each wearing an expression of pure hatred and anger. They both lunged for one another and they clutched each other with their uninjured arms as they roughly groped one another and locked lips. Their tongues dueled for a moment until they pulled away, both breathing hard as wisps of air blew out of their muzzles from the cold air. "Bastard," Scarlet cooed, "You know how much it turns me on when you use such a tone."

"And you know you're the loveliest vixen when you're angry," he sneered as he flashed his blue eyes at her. They both looked at one another for a moment, then, they both looked away in the opposite direction from where they faced their targets. Looking up and down one another again, they both smiled and chuckled simultaneously. The same thought came to their minds. "Darling..."

"Sweetheart..." Then, at the same time, they both whispered to one another as they brought their foreheads against one another; the fingers of their uninjured paws interlacing with one another. "Vengeance."


	11. Oh Bugger

**Chapter 11**

**Oh Bugger**

* * *

**T**he glass of the binocular lenses glinted as the sun's rays shown against their reflective surface. Peering into the window of a particular apartment building across from his perch inside the shady confines of a building under construction, agent Tom slowly rotated a small knob atop of his ocular device to better focus on what he stared at. He grimaced slightly as he saw Carmelita burst into the bathroom and doubled over by the toilet, a yellowish green sludge spewing from her mouth. Dorian Booker came in and helped hold her hair from being caked by the vomit. From watching the rather invigorating fight the night before, Tom kicked himself for not stepping in sooner.

He would have separated Blue's head from his shoulders with the M40 rifle that sat comfortably against the wall, yet with all the thrashing, there was a high risk of blasting the vixen's skull into pieces. The panic drug Blue had used on her was finally working through her system. The poor thing, she could hardly sleep with all the nightmarish images running through her head. Watching the ocelot help Carmelita back onto her bed, the jackal smirked lightly as he twitched his eyebrows. The two animals made quite the heartwarming couple.

Just watching the two brought back memories of when his heart used to belong to another, but that was ancient history. Setting the binoculars down, Tom rubbed his chin for a moment, reaching down to pull on the black tie that wrapped around his neck. Seeing as nothing interesting was going to happen anytime soon, Tom reached into his pocket and held a few coins in his paw. Counting the change, he had enough for the payphone just down the street for contact and a mission update. Climbing out of the construction site, he headed for the payphone and entered the small chamber.

Pushing in the coins and typing in the number, Tom held the phone to his ear and waited as the beeping confirmed that the phone was ringing on the other end. "Yes," a smooth, deep voice came from the other end.

"Boss, you sound like you aren't happy to talk to me," Tom chuckled. "And I thought I was your best friend."

"Agent thirty-three, you know how busy I am. Calling me in the middle of the day, you are simply asking for me to be in a sour mood with you."

"Boss," Tom sighed, "My name is 'Tom', I told you this before."

"Thirty-three, you don't have a name anymore, remember?" There was a slight pause from the other line as the shuffling of papers filled the jackal's ears. "Why did you pick that name, for that matter?"

"Well," Tom said, "I used it after the name of one of the three tunnels a group of allied POWs dug in the movie 'The Great Escape'. The name simply stuck to me when I heard it."

"That's...interesting," the voice on the other end said after a slight pause.

"It's a good movie, boss. You should see it if you ever get the chance. Anyhow," the jackal glanced at his claws and blew into their perfectly clipped and polished visage.

"Tom, why did you contact me," the boss stated bluntly. The jackal glanced out of the transparent glass wall to his left of the phone booth and looked up towards the apartment window.

"Oh, nothing of urgent matters at the moment, I was just curios if we have any more information on Blue and Crimson." Tom waited for a moment as he tapped the clawed tips of his fingers against the glass wall. Finally, a response came from the other line.

"Lucius is tracking them as of the moment."

"Ah, Lucius, glad to see he's finally back on his feet."

"Yes," boss stated. "He's been perfecting his new stealth technology while he was recuperating. It was quite impressive when he tested it out on the field." Hearing a ringing from the background, Tom sighed as he knew he would be put on hold. "One moment, Tom, I'm getting a call from another agent." After a long period of time of simply staring at the reflective surface of the telephone, the jackal curled up his lips to inspect his teeth as he rubbed his tongue against one of his long canines.

Finally, hearing the phone come back to the boss' line, Tom perked up his ears and stood up straighter. "Tom, that was Lucius on the phone," the voice from the other end of the phone stated in a serious tone. "He requests to see you immediately."

"Really," the jackal inquired. "Why?"

"After hearing about charging you with Carmelita Fox's well being, he volunteered to assist you to his best ability since he is currently in the area."

"Lovely, I'm sure he will just be thrilled to see me again after what happened last month." Tom chuckled dryly as the vague memories of one of his most tragic blunders wandered into his mind.

"A good agent keeps his emotions under control to fulfill their duty. And if it does in fact come down to him throwing punches, you do remember your CQC training?"

"Just like riding a bicycle, you never forget."

"Good," after a slight pause, followed by the clicking of fingers tapping rapidly on keys, the boss' voice returned. "His current location is by the coffee shop about half a mile south of your location. I suggest you get moving."

* * *

The rattling of a sowing machine chattered violently as Sly ran the blue fabric of his sweater slowly into the path of the rapid moving needle. Sowing the cut on the front of his sweater, he sighed for what had to be the hundredth time today. Pulling the sweater away from the machine, he held the blue fabric up to the window and let the sunlight shine onto it. Nodding in approval, he slipped his arms through the sleeves and pulled the article of clothing back onto his body, smiling as he felt comforted by the familiar feeling. His father's scent was strong on the sweater, as well as his hat, for it was the same ones that Connor Cooper wore during his time as the master thief of the Cooper line.

He sat in a wooden chair and leaned back as he looked out the window, his booted feet propped up onto the circular table. Running his paw through his grey spiked hair, Sly watched the sky for a moment as he continued thinking. Last night was quite different then what he was used to. Not different in the sense that someone was hell bent on killing him, no that was rather normal for the raccoon. What surprised him and caught him off guard was quite obvious.

Carmelita Fox, she certainly is full of surprises. Sly couldn't help but laugh at times, how perfectly things worked out for him. When he just so happened to find the files telling him that she was in danger and just so happening to come back to Paris to catch her just in time to leave on a date with her partner and even watching them kiss. "I couldn't have arrived maybe a day later then their date night," he grumbled. "Like something out of a movie."

Then he thought for a moment, what was he doing sitting on his tail feeling sorry for? He was Sly Cooper, sitting still wasn't his thing. He had to get his woman back, but first he had another obstacle to bypass before he could achieve his goal. Curling up his lips in a smirk, he grabbed his cap and cane, twisting the doorknob and flying out of the hideout as he clamored up to the rooftop. "Dorian Booker," he said as he shrugged. "What could a little friendly competition hurt?"

* * *

A subtle tap from the window of the dim office room sounded as the latch was raised from the outside and Sly crawled onto the carpeted floor. Pressed his back against the wall as he glanced out the frosted glass window of the office door, he pressed his cane against his chest as he sucked in a breath and slowly turned the knob. Slowly creeping out of the office and into the vast sea of Interpol officers, he collapsed to the floor and crawled under one of the tables that surrounded an off overhead projector. He glanced around from his hiding spot and noticed he hadn't seen Carmelita or Dorian. "I'm telling you, Jones, not a sign."

Sly pressed himself flatter to the floor as he halted his slinking, hearing two police officers waling towards his table. His heart raced as the pair of feet moved toward him, and sighed in relief as the two officers were only getting a cup of water from the water cooler that sat on the table above his head. "The guy told me a million times, he said he hit something, his bumper was crushed, and yet no sign of life anywhere."

"So what, you're telling me something just fell out of the sky right in front of his car and then disappeared after crumbling the guy's bumper?" Sly gasped and wrapped a paw around his muzzle as one of the cop's booted foot stepped on his other paw. He whimpered and growled under the palm of his left paw as his right was pinned to the ground by the boot heel.

"No, I'm saying to you that it was one of those unexplainable phenomenon, rookie. We searched the whole place and found only a brown canvas trench coat and a fedora lying in a puddle of an alley way a few feet away. Now what could not leave anything behind? Certainly nothing of this world, you get hit by a car with enough force to crush the bumper, you won't be making a quick get away if you can even get off the floor at all."

"There you go again, saying its aliens."

"I bet my badge it was! You try and find a better explanation!" Finally, after an agonizing five more minutes of their nonsense, Sly's paw was free from the crushing leather sole of the crackpot cop's boot. Grasping his paw, he rubbed his knuckles tenderly as he watched the cops disappear into their offices and he crawled under more tables, heading towards the file room. He couldn't help but chuckle, remembering when he first stole his own file from the large safe in order to get more information concerning the Fiendish Five.

Slowly turning the gold knob, he pushed the door open slightly and wormed his way through the door's opening. Closing the door behind him, he looked to the stacks of papers and file cabinets that filled the room. Walking forward, he glanced around while closing in on his target. A file cabinet grasped his attention as he slowly pulled open one of the drawers and fumbled through the papers, looking for the letter "B" printed in bold black ink. "Baker, Boise, here we are, Booker," the raccoon whispered to himself as he pulled out the stapled sheets of paper.

"Dorian M. Booker, blood type O negative. Date of birth, January twelfth, nineteen seventy-nine." So he was two years older then Carmelita, and about four years older then the raccoon. Yet he seemed to act as if he was still in high school. Sly continued reading. His records stated that he has had a history of violent acts when taking down criminals during his career in Stockholm Sweden before he became an Interpol officer and was transferred to Paris.

It was recorded that he had stopped a bank robber fleeing the scene by ramming his patrol car into the gun totting criminal. The more Sly read, the less Dorian's file fit him. His impression of the feline was that of a clumsy, rather goofy officer. Yet his records say he was quite the excessive one when it came to criminal punishment. This made the raccoon rather nervous; he didn't want someone like this near Carmelita.

He also didn't want to be unlucky enough to be caught in the ocelot's sights. Being a criminal himself, one that he suggested the feline knew since being his replacement as Constable and knowing what he did to Carmelita. Sly's ears perked up as he heard a soft creak and he whipped his head back to see the door knob slowly turning. Quickly looking around, the door opened up and who else in the world but Dorian Booker stepped inside. The feline glanced around and saw nothing out of place in the room.

A few empty cardboard boxes lay next to one of the file cabinets by the corner, but nothing seemed suspicious. "I could have sworn I heard someone in here," he pondered with a shrug of his shoulders. "Ah well." He walked over to the file cabinet and quirked a brow as he found the one he pulled open to already be unlocked. Pulling on his red tie, his eyes narrowed into a glare of suspicion as he pulled out his shock pistol and glanced around once more.

Sly watched from his hiding spot, through a small slit just enough for his eyes to peer through as he looked upward towards the ocelot. The feline's horizontal irises panned from left to right slowly as he sniffed the air a few times. His whiskers twitched a few times and he holstered his weapon as he pulled out the cabinet and dug through the files. "Hmm, Carline, Connell, Cooper. Here we are, Constable Cooper." Dorian pulled out the entire file and tucked it under his arm as he walked out of the room.

Sly quirked a brow as he lifted up the cardboard box he was hiding under. What would Dorian want with his old police file? The raccoon thought Interpol destroyed it after he left to return to his life as a thief. Yet there it was, in the possession of the ocelot. Sly glanced down at the cardboard box lying next to him, giving off a thin frown in sarcasm.

"A master of stealth and infiltration, and a cardboard box saves my tail." Then again, it was rather clever. Not many people would ever suspect someone hiding under a box of all things. Sly thought for a moment with a finger to his chin. Grinning, he folded up the cardboard box and stuffed it into the bottomless space of the red holster strapped to his thigh.

* * *

Tom glanced at his watch and looked up at the sun. Stopping by the coffee shop where he was to meet Lucius. Seeing as the agent wasn't anywhere in sight, the jackal walked into the coffee shop and decided to get himself a cup. He cringed as he looked up at the menu, coffee sure was getting expensive. At least the particular brand of coffee he was looking at. Starbucks should be thrown in jail for how much they charge these days; it wasn't even that good to begin with.

Ordering a regular cappuccino, he stepped outside and sipped his coffee as he leaned against the wall of an alleyway and watched animals walking slowly down the sidewalks and occasionally a car would drive by towards their destination. His ear twitched to an unknown sound and he glanced over his shoulder to stare down the alleyway. Nothing appeared so he simply shrugged it off. His fingers brushed against something as he walked back out the alleyway and he glanced around again. Seeing a slight bulge from the brick wall, he nudged it with his foot and raised his brows as the bulge moved.

"Careful, you'll get it dirty," said a deep, shady voice. The jackal cracked a smile and tapped the bulge on the shoulder.

"Impressive little gadget you have there, Lucius." The bulge moved and stood up strait as a black panther wearing a tight fitting stealth suit stepped in front of the jackal. The suit had the color pattern of a brick wall, the red clay blocks scattered across the rubbery looking fabric until it faded to a black color. "The new stealth technology I heard about."

"You heard correctly," said the feline. He held out a gloved paw and pressed his palm against the brick wall. After a few seconds, the glove's fabric changed from pitch black to the reddish color of the wall as lines appeared to give it the texture of each brick, blending his paw perfectly with the wall. Pulling his paw away, the fabric changed back to the black color of its original design.

"Boos said you wanted to see me," Tom said as he sipped his coffee. "It wouldn't happen to be that you've got a spare suit. I would like one very much, although I'm sure I won't look as good in it as you do." The jackal chuckled as he commented about the suit's body hugging design.

"No actually," the cat stated, waiting to continue as Tom finished his sigh of disappointment. "I have some valuable information concerning both Indigo Blue and Scarlet Crimson. You are after them, correct?"

"That I am," he said as he sipped his coffee once more. The slurping sound he made caused the feline's ears to flatten. After a long noisy slurp, Tom smacked his lips and made a loud gulping with his throat and smiled. "And how did you attain such information?"

"Simple," he held up a finger to emphasize his statement. "I snuck into their room last night and simply pressed myself against the wall. Using the suits adaptive nature, they didn't even notice me."

"Yes, but wouldn't it be strange to see a floating head pressed against the wall?"

"That's why I also developed this." The feline pulled out a rubbery balaclava that was the same black color as the suit. "This skullcap here is also outfitted with the adaptive technologies of the suit."

"Hmm," Tom said as he took another long sip from his coffee. Lucius smacked the cup from the jackal's paws and stepped closer in front of him.

"Listen, I want you to take this seriously, these people are not to be taken lightly!" Tom simply glanced at the cup on the floor and frowned.

"That was five dollars you just smacked out of my paw, you wetsuit wearing looney." Tom then grasped the feline by the wrist and gave a quick jab to Lucius' throat as he spun him around and flipped the cat over to land on his back. Tom then knelt down and pressed his shin down onto the feline's neck as he still held his arm. The suit's automatic adaptive camouflage took the color and texture of the concrete. "Now, I know we had a troubled career together," Tom stated calmly.

"But in order for this to work, I'll need your cooperation. I'm sorry I caused you to break your leg on our last little outing together, but what else could I do? The guy was smarter then we expected and he found out my disguise before we could catch him off guard." Lucius gave out a gag as he clutched Tom's knee and patted against it, his squirming beginning to slow as he was losing consciousness. Tom lifted up his shin from pressing against the cat's throat and helped him up off the ground.

"Just give me the details," Tom said as he brushed off the dirt from Lucius' shoulder. The feline coughed as he clutched his throat and handed Tom a few pictures of both Crimson and Blue. "I took their pictures just incase you were going to try and mimic them. I over heard them talking about exacting revenge against Carmelita Fox, Dorian Booker, and Sly Cooper."

"Sly Cooper, the master thief, since when did he get added to the equation?"

"Since he was targeted for elimination last night, Scarlet Crimson attempted to kill him but was hit by a car and fractured her arm."

"Oh bugger," Tom sighed. "Now we have to add another player to the game, why not simply have the military on this little case as well. And while we're at it, I'm sure the Prime Minister would love to know that we're involved in this."

"Calm yourself, Tom. They still haven't constructed Clockwerk, at least not fully. They appear to be having trouble finding the necessary supplies to create him again." Lucius glanced down at his watch and sighed. "I should be off, incase anything else develops over time." Before he departed, the panther pulled out another small piece of paper. "Blue is going to attempt to go after Cooper while Crimson will target Carmelita and Booker. Keep your wits about you. She is not as...passive as her partner is."

"I'll make sure she will be safe, you have my word." Tom placed a paw over his chest where his heart lies. Glancing at the photos in his other paw, he smirked and pushed them into his back pocket. "Boss had better pay us for all the trouble we're going through."

* * *

Standing on his perch, Sly cupped a paw over his mouth as he yawned. He had not gotten a long period last night, and he was nocturnal by nature. Seeing as he had not spotted Carmelita at her office, he thought he'd try her apartment. Her window was open as always, hinting to the raccoon that perhaps she secretly wanted him to sneak into her bedroom. He placed the blue binoc-u-com to his eyes and zoomed into the bedroom, seeing Carmelita sleeping on the mattress.

He quirked a brow as he glanced at the window with his naked eyes, then resumed staring through his device. Was Carmelita sick? It had to be the case, she always made sure to get to work on time everyday, plus it wasn't normal for her to be sleeping in the late afternoon. Smirking, he stuffed the binoc-u-com away and continued looking into the window as he scratched his chin. Grasping his cane, he ran down the opposite direction from her apartment and vaulted across a gap to land on another roof. A few more blocks down, Sly finally spotted his target.

A flouriest shop sat right below him as he unlatched the vented lid of the ventilation system and jumped on in. Crawling through the small space, he could smell the sweet aromas of the fresh flowers that grew in the shop's indoor garden. Jumping out of the vent, he spotted a rather eye-catching group of roses. Snatching a few, he pulled off all the thorns from each stem and crept into the store's front. Crouching below the front desk, he reached up and cut off a long piece of ribbon and tied it around the stems of the flowers as he searched for a vase.

Finding a rather beautiful white vase with intricate baby blue swirls and painted flowers trimming around it, he placed the collective bundle of roses into the glass and filled it with water from the garden hose. Scratching his chin once more, he clicked his fingers together and shuffled through a few scraps of paper before plucking out a particular card. He would have used the infamous calling card he was so prone to using, but after seeing the gleaming red mustang in the apartment complex's parking lot, he didn't want to take the risk. Scratching the words in blue ink, he pinned the card to the gift and thought for one last second. Reaching into his red holster, he withdrew a bundle of euros and broke into the cash register to place the money in properly.

He would have sprinkled some sugar into the water to help make the flowers last longer, but he simply didn't have every resource he needed at the moment. Now, how was he going to do this? With Dorian most likely guarding the vixen and keeping his ears trained to pick up the sound of a flea sneezing, he had to play it extra quiet. Cradling the vase in his arm while he used his right to grasp the brick wall he scaled, he slowly peaked into the open window and panned his gaze from left to right. Slowly slinking into the room, he tiptoed over to the slumbering female's bedside.

He stooped dead as the carpet floor gave off a soft creak as his toes pressed against the surface. Perking his ears, he heard no sound other then his thumping heart. Starting towards the bed again, he gently placed the flowers onto the nightstand next to the digital clock and he positioned the flowers. Moving the delicate red heads to sit properly in the vase, his heart froze as he heard shuffling from the other room and heard the door knob turn. Dorian drew the door open and pointed his shock pistol into the room.

Glancing to his left, then to his right, he cupped his other paw under the gun's handle and inched towards the open window, pressing his back to the wall as he leaned out to glance out the window. Seeing nothing suspicious, he sighed and holstered the weapon. Turning around to see the vase of flowers by the bedside, he quirked a brow and looked back out the window, then back to the flowers.

* * *

Sly breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the ocelot shrug and walk back out of the room, leaving the flowers unharmed. Sly's eyes followed the feline as he watched him from the other windows of Carmelita's apartment. He was beginning to detest the good Constable as he watched him open the refrigerator door and rummage through Carmelita's food. "Just make yourself at home," Sly sneered. Though he had no tolerance for the cat, he was at least thankful to him.

He was protecting Carmelita with his life. Sly could respect that in him at least. He most likely told his superiors that Carmelita was targeted multiple times for being eliminated, so she would most likely have him and others to help her. Through the window, Dorian glanced to his left as he pulled himself out of the depths of the fridge and locked eyes with the raccoon perched atop the roof. Sly lowered his binoc-u-com and stared at the ocelot for a moment.

Booker slowly closed the fridge, keeping constant eye contact with the shadowy figure perched on the roof across from him. He pressed his lips together and slowly lowered his eyebrows in a mild leer. Sly stared from the brim of his cap towards the feline, and drew the corner of his lip down, returning the glare. For a moment the two animals stared at one another in this manner, not moving even an inch. Dorian reached out and slowly opened the kitchen window, keeping his gaze locked with the raccoon as he glanced down at his hip where his holstered shock pistol made residence.

Sly curled the corner of his lip back up in a smirk as he brought a paw in front of him and gestured for the ocelot to reach for the gun. _Let's see how fast you can pull that trigger, _he silently taunted the cat. Dorian slowly reached for the handle of his gun, keeping his facial features chiseled from stone. Quickly, he grasped the handle and pointed the gun straight at the raccoon, his eyes widening as he glanced back up to see that the thief had disappeared from sight.

"Next time..."

* * *

A soft moan emitted from under the sheets as Carmelita raised her head from the pillow to glance at what tickled at her nose. Her eyes widened slightly as she saw an elegant vase filled with roses sitting on her bedside table. Carmelita sat up on the bed, clutching her stomach as a wave of dizziness and nausea struck her. Leaning forward, she buried her nose into the red peddles and inhaled deeply, feeling quite better after smelling the flowers. Glancing down, she saw a small folded card tied to the bundle and she plucked it off and folded it open.

Her first impression was that Dorian had picked them up for her while she slept, but once she saw the blue ink on the card, her heart skipped a beat and her suspicions about Dorian were quickly tossed aside. "Get well soon, angel." Only one person ever wrote in that particular handwriting with that particular color of ink. "Sly Cooper..." She whispered as she glanced out of the open window.

* * *

Sly leaned against a familiar stone gargoyle high atop a building. The wind whipped through his fur as he rested an arm on one knee while his other leg hung lazily off the edge of his perch. Slowly spinning his cane with a steady rhythm of twirling his gloved fingers, he glanced down at the apartment building a few stories below him. Yawning, he rubbed his tired eyes and pulled down on the brim of his hat as he stood up. Standing on the very edge of his footing, he leaned forward, balancing on the tips of his feet and he fell forward.

Soaring through the air, Sly reached into his holster and quickly pulled out the blue and white hang glider that was shaped in the symbol of the infamous Cooper Clan. Grasping the ropes in his paws, he leaned to the left and steered through the air to land onto a rooftop. Folding up the glider and shoving it into the holster, Sly rolled his shoulders and walked down the length of the roof until he slid down the drainpipe by the edge of the roof and landed in front of his hideout door. Entering the small home, Sly placed his cane against the wall and threw his cap into the air where it landed on the hook of the coat rack by the door. Kicking off his boots, he landed on the creaking mattress like a timbering tree and buried his face into the pillow.

Though he had gotten used to being awake during the light hours when working for Interpol with Carmelita, he couldn't help but always return to sleeping during the day and being active during the night. It was his nature. He could never fully change it. The vision of Carmelita's expression as it lit up when she saw his card and the roses made him grin. It told the raccoon that she still cared for him, for the time being anyway.

He decided to let go of Carmelita and Dorian and all this mess for now. Right now, he just wanted a decent rest.

* * *

_Author's note: Hey, how's it going? Anywho, I took the time to write this note so that I could tell you, the readers that I must say with a heavy heart that my beta, IgnorantOne will be moving away and whom I will be out of contact with for a few months I believe. Do not fret though, I will still be updating this story regularly. Though I will not have my beta to exchange ideas for the next chapter's plotline, I will do my best to try and think on my own. Well all I really have left to say is good luck IgnorantOne, hope you enjoy your new home and movings a royal pain in the ass ain't it?_

-Tex


	12. Black and White

**Chapter 12**

**Black and White**

* * *

"_**S**__o, you've gotten rid of their weapons manufacturing plant?" _The words spelt out as they were displayed on the computer screen. Bentley adjusted his glasses and pushed them up on the brim of his beak like nose and he typed a response on his keyboard.

"_That is correct. Unfortunately we weren't able to locate what we were after."_ Bentley waited for a reply on the instant messenger. The same shadowy messenger from before the gang departed from Paris began writing back as Bentley read the text.

"_A shame, I was really hoping you and your team would succeed. To know that Clockwerk would be put out of commission permanently would make my life as well as the rest of the lives of the thieves on this site all the more easier." _

"_You wouldn't happen to know anything about this organization? Such as a main base of operation or perhaps where they are building the new Clockwerk?" _A long pause ensued as Bentley leaned back in his chair. Quirking a brow, he waited a few more minutes until a response finally came.

"_Another thief on this site had taken some photos and uploaded them to the database. I asked him for permission to see if I could use them and he agreed. I'm sure they will prove useful to you." _A series of photos uploaded onto the small space of the instant messenger window. Filling the white space, the images were quite impressive.

The interior of a rather dank looking factory displayed in front of the turtle's eyes. Sparks flew in all directions as Bentley scrolled down, whoever these people were, they seemed to be very busy constructing something large. Bentley had a feeling, but his suspicions weren't confirmed until a close up view of what the mechanics were constructing was displayed. A pair of glowing yellow eyes and a sharp curved beak met the reptile's gaze and he enhanced the image. Clockwerk's head had been constructed, as well as part of the thick metal neck and parts of the shoulders.

The abomination's metallic hind legs, wings, and the rest of the body however weren't being forged as of yet. _"Incredible,"_ Bentley typed. _"How was this person able to get such good shots?"_

"_A spy camera no doubt,"_ was his response. _"They have finished constructing the frame of the head. However, they haven't programmed a personality or any other data into the brain. Since the original Clockwerk was once organic, they already had a living, working brain to hook up to. Now however, they will have to start from scratch. This should give you and your team more time to figure out a way to halt this completely."_

"_Where is the location of this factory," _Bentley typed as he spoke the words out loud to himself.

"_I believe somewhere in Siberia. They must be using the location because of the barren snow filled wasteland__that is eastern Russia. With that location, they will be hard to spot without the best of either the US or Russian Government's spy aircraft or satellites. And it is plain to see that they are using the climate to their advantage. Trudging through an arctic desert in the middle of a snow storm would make them very difficult to locate…nor is it the most healthy of journeys. Not to mention the one of the most treacherous; there are many ways to die slowly, and painfully in any wasteland." _

"_Well," _Bentley sighed. _"Guess we're just going to have to trudge through the snow then."_

"_You're honestly going?"_

"_We need to stop Clockwerk. So we really don't have much of a choice."_

"_I see,"_ the anonymous messenger said after a slight pause. _"Well, all I can say is good luck to you and your team."_

* * *

The roar of the Cadillac's motor sent shivers up the dog's spine as he pushed down harder on the acceleration. The smile on his face was soon erased however as another shot of pain stabbed at his shoulder. Indigo Blue glanced at his shoulder and the crude patch of bandages that was tapped to his muscle. To his right, Scarlet Crimson cradled her limp left arm in her lap as she stared ahead at the road surrounded by grass and thick trees. The vixen reached into her purse and fished out a small white bottle.

Popping off the cap, she jiggled the bottle around a bit and gasped as she didn't hear the sound of pills tousling inside. "Perfect, I'm out of pills." Blue glanced to his right and then back at the road.

"Don't fret, sweetheart, I'm sure where we are going they will be able to refill it. Your proscription is on the bottle, right?"

"Yes," she sighed. "But it would be nice to have one right about now." She glanced out the window and cringed as she shifted her weight and had to move her broken arm. Blue glanced down at the screen of his GPS system and grinned again. "We're here," he stated.

Turning off the road and driving up a privately owned pathway through a thick wall of leaves and bark, Blue parked the car as he came to a stop in front of a large manor. Slowly stepping out as he grunted in pain, he felt Scarlet's uninjured right paw wrap around his fingers. Knocking three times and ringing the door bell twice, a pause came until both the animal's ears perked up to the sound of footsteps on the other side of the door. A stout, middle-aged possum pulled open one of the large doors and looked down at the two animals from atop the small flight of stairs that led up to the door. "May I help you," the rodent said.

"Yes," Blue said. "We are in need of your employer's services. Is the good doctor here at the moment?"

"Do either of you have an appointment?"

"I believe we don't need one to see him, you see our employer is of high regards to-

"If you do not have an appointment then I will have to ask you to leave the premises." The doorman's interruption caught the malamute off guard as he drew back slightly and readjusted his collar to attempt to keep his composure.

"I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't interrupt me again...for both our sakes."

"You and your lady friend do not have an appointment with Dr. Reeves. Now leave before I call security." Blue glanced at Scarlet who returned the glance with a wicked grin. Uncurling her paw from his, she took a step forward and watched as the doorman reached for a button near the wall that would summon the security for the manor. Scarlet reached behind her and whipped her wrist around as she flung a small knife towards the possum's paw.

The knife stabbed into the rodent's palm and the force pinned his paw to the wall. The possum didn't shout in pain, rather he wrapped his fingers onto the handle and swiftly jerked the blade free. Looking towards the red furred vixen, he grasped the blade and offered it handle first to her. "You dropped this, miss," he said as Scarlet took back her knife and wiped it clean with a moist cloth.

"Your employer, the good Dr. Reeves was expecting us. We are part of the top guild of assassins under the employment of 'The Colonel'. You do know him don't you?" Blue glanced at the hole in the possum's paw as it began to drip slightly from a small trickle of blood. He curled up the side of his lip in mild disgust and re-focused his attention to the rodent's face as he heard him speaking.

"I do know of him, yes. And from what I gathered from that little bundle of sunshine," he spoke as he pointed a finger towards Scarlet. "The knife skills she possessed could only be learned from a small number of individuals around the world, The Colonel being one of them. So if you are who you say you are, I'll let you pass."

"My, what a nice man he is," Scarlet grinned as she gave out with her trademark sarcasm. The possum's eyes followed the vixen as she walked past him and up the stairs.

"Dr. Reeves is in his workshop, down the hall, third door on the left." The possum glanced at the wall where a small smudge of red and a thin crack marred the spotless white surface. "Dr. Reeves won't be happy when he sees this." Blue looked at the damage to the wall and gave a fang filled smile.

"My partner and I will take our chances." Walking down the hall towards their destination, Blue turned the door knob slowly and pushed open as the two watched a tall, thin chameleon cutting thin sheets of metal with a diamond edged saw. Blue slowly walked up behind the reptile and pulled him away from the saw, kicking the back of his knee out and bringing the doctor into a head lock.

"Sure is noisy in here, makes it easier to sneak up on people." The chameleon remained calm as he released the air stored in his lungs through his nostrils.

"Indigo Blue I presume?" The lizard moved his round, bulging eyes to his left as he glanced at the malamute's face.

"You presume correctly," the dog stated as he brought the doctor out of the head lock. Dr. Reeves rubbed his green neck and switched off the saw that was still twirling around.

"Do you know how dangerous that little stun you just pulled was? Without anyone at the saw, it could have caused a serious injury." Both Blue and Scarlet looked at one another and then back at the lizard. The malamute drew in a breath and addressed the good doctor.

"We are in need of your services, Dr. Reeves. Our employer tells us that you two are in high regards to one another."

"Very well, Colonel told me you were on your way. Let's see the damage then." Grabbing a pair of glasses from the work table, he sat the glass frames in front of his squinting, golf ball sized eyes and the dog rolled up his sleeve. Peeling back the bandages, the chameleon drew back from the stench that wafted up into his nostrils. "Well," he said. "At least it isn't infected yet. This bullet wound came from a twenty-two caliber I presume?"

"Yes," Indigo said as he raised a brow. "How can you tell?"

"Well, if anything bigger were to shoot you, you wouldn't have a shoulder anymore. When a bullet slams into you, they mostly disintegrate and spray little chunks of it everywhere. Lead is a very fragile metal after all. Not to mention where the bullet hit you, near your shoulder joint, larger bullets have a tendency to sheer through the ball joint and sever the arm…" The reptile let a small smile crawl over his face.

"Especially those nasty, nasty hollow-point rounds…but seeing that you have no shattered bone, which is good because otherwise you would probably never be able to use this arm ever again. You do**,** however**,** have some ripped muscle tissue… and it seems the bullet clipped a good-sized vein, hence the moderate bleeding. Frankly, I'm amazed that you haven't collapsed from blood loss yet."

"Well unless you fix me soon, I have a feeling that will happen soon enough." Blue cringed as the doctor continued probing the hole with a few tools, folding back the flaps of skin and reaching in to prod at the torn masses of red muscle tissue.

"We should move downstairs. I have my own medical room that has been properly sterilized."

"What's the big deal, it isn't like those tools are rusty or anything." Scarlet piped up as her ears dropped while seeing Blue cringe in pain once more.

"Young lady," the chameleon drew off his glasses and folded them into his front pocket. "You clearly have no idea. I'm guessing that it was you who removed the bullet."

"Yes," she said defensively as she drew her ears back. "Is there a problem?"

"No, only that which I had to guess it was you on account of how sloppy a job it was. You must have used an edged weapon, which would explain why the corners of the wound are tattered like an old wet newspaper. Come with me." Scarlet glared as she followed the lizard along with the canine that clutched his throbbing shoulder. Stepping down the stairs, Reeves froze as he saw a small puddle of blood running down the wall by the door and collecting on the floor.

He sighed and glanced over his shoulder towards Scarlet who gave an innocent smile as a response. Rolling his eyes, the scaled doctor ushered the two mammals into the white spotless room that resembled a hospital operating room. "Being the chief of medicine," Reeves spoke out as he pulled out a syringe and filled it with Novocain. "I have quite the access to medical supplies. All the hospitals in Paris have my medicine and my supplies. Mr. Blue, your arm, please."

Blue sighed and closed his eyes as he stretched out his arm toward the lizard. The husky merely winced from feeling the sharp sting of the needle, his shoulder felt strange as it began to numb. Reeves continued talking as he began stitching up the dog's shoulder. "I owe this to your employer; he has given me truck loads of work which has in the end helped me rise above the ranks in the world for me to become a doctor. This is why I allow him to send me any and every lowly filth he finds off the streets and hires as his assassins, body guards, or his ox head thugs. Any of them become injured and cannot go to a hospital, they come to me."

"I'm sorry for interrupting," said Blue as he glanced up at the doctor's face. "But did you just refer to us, the most elite of the Colonel's assassin's, as common street filth?" The doctor didn't reply as he finished up the stitching and gestured Blue off the table. Coiling back his thin, boney green fingers, he gestured for Scarlet to sit on the table.

Once she was comfortably situated, the underground doctor examined her arm, which he noticed she was carrying strangely. "Hmm," he hummed deep in his throat. "Bone fracture just below the elbow, no damaged joints," the vixen yelped as Reeves moved her arm, causing Blue's eyes to grow wide and bare his teeth.

"Calm yourself, Mr. Blue. Your lady friend won't be permanently damaged from anything I would do. I'm just testing her movements to see if there are any other complications." Turning back to the vixen's arm, he prodded a few areas with two fingers, slowly moving up her forearm. Stepping into his cabinet, he pulled out a splint and set Scarlet's arm; the vixen bit down on her lower lip to keep from screaming, instead she whimpered like a kicked puppy.

Wrapping her arm into a bandage along with the splint, he placed the wrapped arm into a sling and brought it around so that the strap was supported by her neck. Looking at her arm, Scarlet sighed and glanced up to Blue. He gave a thin smile in sympathy and tilted his head. The vixen's ears perked up and she pulled out her empty bottle that was stuffed into her pant's pocket. "Dr. Reeves, I was hoping you would refill my prescription while we were here."

Reeves glanced over his shoulder and leaned forward to look closely at the bottle. He gave a deep _harrumph _from his throat and went back into another room. Quickly stepping out again, he handed the bottle that was now heavier into the vixen's paws. The clicking of tousled pilled could be heard from the inside of the bottle. "It tells me you suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. These should work well for you. Do not exceed more then two a day. I also have a bottle of vicodin for you both to help manage the pain from the fracture, the torn muscle and veins."

"Oh thank god," Scarlet gasped as she popped open her bottle and dropped a pill into her paw. Throwing it into her mouth, she swallowed it without even a glass of water and let out a sigh of relief. "Another minute and I'd be shaking out of my fur."

"I advise you, young lady, these pills should not be taken with alcohol." The doctor sighed as he noticed that his warning probably went unheeded as Scarlet began feeling the effects of her pill and wasn't paying attention. "I also advise the both of you to refrain from extraneous or stressful physical activities until your wounds heal, such as heavy lifting or intercourse." Both Blue and Scarlet glanced up at the doctor simultaneously and raised both brows.

"Excuse me Reeves," Blue said as he gave off a nervous chuckle. "It sounded to me like you just said-

"Correct, no sex. Your bodies need time to heal and putting too much physical strain will only worsen your conditions."

"...Funny, you're very funny, doctor."

"I'm being serious, Mr. Blue. No sex, at least not for the first week." Both Blue and Crimson looked at one another again. "But if you cannot keep your...libido in check, at least do not perform intercourse while you are on top." Reeves said as he pointed a twig like finger in Blue's direction. "Though huskies are known to be very muscular forcanines, I'm afraid with the way your shoulder is, it would be quite difficult for you to...ahem, perform."

"Malamute," Blue said. His word caused the doctor to blink.

"Excuse me?"

"My breed is a malamute, not a husky. But I'll forgive you, it's a common mistake. You can tell between us by the size of our necks. A husky's neck is thinner then malamutes."

"Forgive me. I just assumed you were a husky on account of-

"The ice blue eyes, yes. Pure bred malamutes always have brown eyes, but I never said I was pure bred did I? My mother was a husky while my father was a malamute." Glancing at his watch, Blue moved his irises back up to face Reeves and he gave a plastic smile of gratitude. "Well, it was a pleasure watching you work and my lady friend and I are grateful, but we must be off."

"Hold on a moment," Reeves held up a hand as Blue halted and Scarlet froze from jumping off the table. Blue slowly turned around and closed his eyes in annoyance.

"...Yes?" He said in a drawn out tone.

"Your fee, please."

"Ah, right, just put it on the Colonel's tab."

"The Colonel did not pay for your operations. I'll need you to pay for your treatment. Running an underground hospital for treating hitmen, assassins, thugs, and even crooked politicians is a costly business. My medical supplies do not come cheap."

"Alright," Blue sighed as he pulled out a check book. "How much do we owe you?" Reeves put a finger to his chin and gave off an _hmm_ in thought.

"Let us see, resetting a fractured arm, repairing damaged muscle tissue and re-connecting severed veins and arteries. Plus the two bottles of vicodin and Scarlet's proscription…plus the money required to fix my doorman…whatever the damage you caused. It will cost fifteen thousand all together, which ever type of currency you have will do. I can have it converted here." Blue's eyes flashed an angry azure as his fist crumpled the checkbook in his paw.

Scarlet's emerald eyes switched back and forth from Blue and Reeves as she waited for a response from either of them. She smiled and closed her eyes, slowly shaking her head as Blue glanced at her for an answer. He gave off a thin frown and halted his paw from reaching behind him and grasping the handle of the concealed forty five that was holstered under the back of his blue sweater. Scarlet pushed off from the table and reached into her red leather purse that sat on the counter top. Fishing out bundles of American dollar bills, she pushed them into the chameleon's hands and smiled sweetly as she wrapped her arm around Blue's.

"Thank you for your services, Mr. Reeves. I'll tell The Colonel personally for your _flawless _assistance." Blue simply looked dumbfounded as he was led out the door by Scarlet. Walking out to the parked Cadillac, Blue opened the passenger door for Scarlet to enter and he crawled into the driver's seat. Staring forward, he drew a breath and looked to his right.

"Scarlet..."

"Yes, darling," she said with false innocence.

"Where did you get that money, and why was it in American bills?"

"Now, Indigo, no matter how long we stay together, I can't allow you to know everything about me. A girl's got to have her secrets, like you have yours. For instance, I never knew you were a mongrel."

"Please don't call me that, sweetheart," Blue said as he turned the key and brought the car's engine to life. "I prefer the term, mixed. Mongrel brings back memories for when I was teased for it." He paused as he felt Scarlet's red furred paw slide up and cupped the side of his head.

"I don't think any less of you for it, darling." Blue moved his eyes to his right as he glanced into the green gaze of his partner. Raising a brow, he smirked and pulled the car over into a clearing that was surrounded by trees and foliage. Sliding a finger up and down the dog's chest, she leaned forward and buried her snout into the side of his face. "I like blue eyes better anyway."

"You know," Blue said as he unbuckled his safety belt. "Reeves did say that as long as I wasn't on top, we would be ok."

"Are you implying what I think you're implying, darling?" Blue simply gave a smirk as he ran his fingers through the fiery vixen's blazing red hair and they mashed their lips together.

* * *

"Dammit," Carmelita snapped as she attempted to turn the door knob, finding that it would not budge. Closing her eyes, she simply shouted into the air. "Dorian, open the door!"

"Can't do that, boss ma'am," was her answer. Flattening her ears, she pounded onto the door with a fist and shouted once more.

"Dorian, open the damn door!"

"Now you know I can't go and do that. You'll just go right out onto the streets when I open this door. For all we know, there could be a sniper in one of those windows across the street ready to splatter your brains all over the sidewalk." The ocelot cringed on the other side of the door as he heard Carmelita pummel the wooden barrier with her fists again. He didn't want to do this, it wasn't like he enjoyed being cooped up in Carmelita's apartment either.

The orders came from Chief Barkley himself. _"Keep Fox alive, boy. That's an order." _Scratching his head, he leaned against the door and sighed as he noticed Carmelita had finally stopped. "Hey," he said softy. "I'm hungry. I'm going to go get something out of the fridge. You want anything?"

"...yeah," she said, defeat clear in the tone of her voice. "Could you warm up the leftovers from last night?"

"Sure thing, be back in a bit. Remember to stay away from the windows." Carmelita sighed as she crashed back onto her bed. She was a prisoner in her own apartment. She was grateful for the protection of Dorian and a few off duty Interpol officers that constantly wandered the streets near her apartment, relaying information to one another as they hid in the crowds of pedestrians.

She understood that she was targeted for elimination and they were only keeping her safe. But being cooped up and forced to sit and wait while everyone else was risking their lives wasn't her thing. She needed work to do, she needed an objective to accomplish, just something besides sitting in her room all day and eating microwave lasagna. Then an idea came to her, causing a grin to spread across her face as her ears twitched to the sound of Dorian stepping down the hallway and towards her room. Holding two plates in his paws, the feline kicked the door a few times with his foot to signal the fox that he was just outside the door.

"Are you decent?"

"Yeah, just a minute," she said as she slid on her brown leather jacket and laced up her boots. Pressing her back against the wall right beside the door, she waited as Booker pushed open the door and stepped in.

"Hey, hope you're-

His speech was interrupted as Carmelita kicked the back of his leg and forced his knees to bend. Crashing down to the floor, Dorian gasped as the lasagna fell from his paws and landed onto the floor. Fortunately, the lasagna stayed on the plate as the saucer sat on the carpet, completely unharmed. Bringing her forearm to coil around his long neck, Carmelita squeezed hard like a boa constrictor wrapping around a field mouse. "Sorry, Dorian," she said as she furrowed her brows to appear shameful for what she was doing. "But I just can't sit around and wait, you'll understand."

"Grrraaah, C-Carmelita...you...you..." His thrashing finally stopped as his vision darkened and he drifted off into unconsciousness. Shaking him around a bit, Carmelita finally uncoiled her arm from his neck and the spotted feline toppled to the floor.

"Sorry," Carmelita said again as she brought two fingers to her lips and pressed the furry digits onto the black spot on his left cheek. "Hope that headache won't hurt too much when you come to."

* * *

Leaning out of the door, Carmelita Fox panned her gaze from left to right and stepped out into the light. The sun's rays felt good on her body, warming the core of her being and filling her with energy much like a plant would. Being cooped up inside without so much as having a window open made her truly appreciate the golden ball of fire in the sky. Walking down the sidewalk, she became just another person in the city as she kept a low profile. Her eyes widened as she saw a small glint of light behind one of the windows across from her.

Pushing through the crowds, she dove behind a mailbox and covered her head as she thought the glint came off the scope of a rifle. After a pause, she cautiously peaked over the edge and saw nothing in the window the light from the sun reflecting off the glass and casting a glare. Sighing, she stood up and brushed off the dust that coated her jacket, glancing over her shoulder as crowds of people stopped and stared at her with puzzlement. "So much for keeping a low profile," she whispered under her breath.

Walking down the street, she thought about where the best place to find any leads would be. Placing a long clawed finger to her chin, she remembered the series of warehouses and hardware stores that were picked clean save for the cash register. If there were any leads to who was trying to kill her, she would start there. Placing two fingers in her mouth, Carmelita let forth a sharp whistle and waved for a taxi. The yellow cab came to a stop by the sidewalk next to her and she climbed in.

"Where to," the spaniel in the driver's seat asked as he glanced over his shoulder.

"Monterrey Warehouse, please." The cab began moving forward as the vixen looked out the window. She gave a thin frown; they've probably realized she was missing by now. The inspector felt rather strange, being watched and locked up much like the criminals she brought to justice. The cab came to a halt in front of a warehouse that was spider webbed with yellow tape.

"Twelve, fifty, ma'am," the cab driver said. Carmelita reached into her pocket and withdrew the money needed to pay her fee. Watching the taxi drive away, she turned back to look up at the warehouse. She sighed and stepped over the tap and entered the building, coughing as particles of dust smacked into her face. Squinting into the dim rooms, her footsteps echoed as she walked down the aisles of empty shelves.

Her ears perked to a subtle sound coming from a few aisles down. Pulling out the red shock pistol she carried in her jacket, she clicked back the hammer and slowly stepped down the store's length. Not wanting to give away her position, she left the flashlight turned off from the gun as she slowly stepped farther down, the noise growing louder. "I don't give a damn what Colonel says..." Carmelita could hear the grumblings of a gruff voiced man on the other side of the shelf she pressed herself against. "All this money just lying around, no one using it, it's a damn crime it is."

"It's a crime for you to even be in this building," Carmelita sneered as she stepped out of hiding and blasted the crook in the chest with enough volts to render him a limp pile of fur. Money flew in all directions as the crook let go of his bag and crashed to the floor, groaning as small tendrils of smoke rose off his body. Grasping his long, stringy tendrils of hair in her paw, Carmelita lifted the man's head off the floor by his hair. The bat slowly opened his pitch black eyes and looked up towards the vixen's face.

"Start talking, creep," Carmelita threatened as she pushed her pistol's warm barrel against the bat's face. "Who's this Colonel, and was it he who ripped off all these stores?"

"Uuuhgg..." the bat rolled off his long, pointed tongue. Carmelita looked the winged animal's body and found a rather familiar symbol etched into the front of his shirt. The bird of prey with its wings spread out made her eyes grow as she confirmed that she stumbled onto something big. Shaking the crook's head violently, Carmelita planted her boot onto the bat's chest as she flattened him onto the ground.

"Start talking. who's the Colonel? Why does he need these power tools? Why is he trying to kill me, and who is he going to send next?" The bat grunted as he tried to stand, but his limbs were un-responsive as the vixen added more pressure against his chest with her boot. "Tell me!"

"I-I don't know, I'm just doing what he asked me to do."

"That's a load of bull!" Carmelita grasped the bat and lifted him up by the hair once more and slammed him up against the wall. "Your boss threatened me, my friends, and is making my life a living nightmare! I want answers and I want them now!" She lurched back and slammed the bat into the wall once more.

"P-please stop hitting me," the bat said in a nervous tone. The vixen threw the bat onto the ground once more and trained her pistol on his head. "All I know is that I was sent to get as many power tools and supplies to him for his workers. That's all. My crew already left and I stayed behind to take some of the money from the register. That's the truth I swear, I swear!"

Carmelita lifted the bat by the collar and blasted a shock round into the ceiling, raining down a shower of sparks as the high voltage round slammed into one of the ceiling lights. Carmelita grunted as she took both paws to his collar and lifted him up so that his face was inches away from the jagged glass and the sparking electrical outlet. The crook screamed and whimpered as Carmelita held him a short distance away from having his face slashed to ribbons and burnt to a crisp by electrical shock.

"That isn't all of it," she snapped. "Who are the ones trying to kill me?!"

"I don't know, I told you all I know I swear!" Lifting him up closer, he shouted and squirmed. "Ok, ok, I know, I know," he gasped as Carmelita lowered him to come face to face with her. "Silver, Blue, Crimson, they are all part of a group of highly trained assassins under the employment of The Colonel. They say he was the one who trained them all and they became his best students. He has them kill anyone that needs to be killed. All around the world, they go and kill people that would be considered a threat to his operations, that's it I swear!"

"How many members are left?"

"Oh come on..." the bat groaned. Carmelita lifted him up again towards the ceiling light and his voice filled with panic again as he shouted all he knew.

"OK, OK, THERE'S A FEW OTHER GUYS LEFT!!"

"Who are they?" Carmelita lowered the thug once more and his voice became nervous and shaky.

"There's Sterling Silver, he has a thing for poisons. I over heard that he was going to kill you while you were in the hospital. Then there's Indigo Blue and Scarlet Crimson. Blue was the guy you met a few nights ago, he uses mind altering drugs and charm to make anyone think he's your friend right before he puts a bullet in your brain. And Scarlet, she uses her beauty to get any man to fall in love with her, and then when they are all softened up, she drives a knife through their heart. Then there's Ivory White. You probably don't have to worry too much about him thought. He's been dead for years. They said he was a medium, he was able to see and talk to ghosts and ask them for help whenever he needed assistance."

"Is there anyone else?"

"Just the Colonel, no one knows his true name, but some say he goes by Black. People usually just call him 'Boss' or the codename he picks for each of his operations."

"In this case, the Colonel."

"Yeah..." The bat glanced around nervously as Carmelita looked at the floor in thought for a moment. Then, snapping back to reality, she kneed the bat in the side just under his ribs and brought him to the floor. Pulling out a pair of handcuffs, she snapped them onto his wrists and walked over to the telephone bolted to the wall by the front desk.

"Hello," she spoke into the phone. The bat watched as she had a short conversation from his spot on the floor. Staring at her as she walked back to him, she lifted him up and pushed him against the wall so that he could sit up right. "Well, thank you for the information. One last thing..."

"Y-yeah...?"

"What is the Colonel planning with all these tools?" The bat glanced at the floor and then back up at the vixen and cracked a nervous, fang filled grin.

"You'd feel better if you figured it out yourself." Carmelita sighed and kicked the thug in the stomach. She was running out of patience, so she simply walked away. "Wait! You aren't just gonna leave me here, are you?!" Carmelita turned around and grinned at the bat before she stepped out the door.

"Don't worry, I called the police. I'm sure they will come and pick you up soon." The bat hung his head and sighed as the vixen stepped back out into the light. Shoving her paws into the pockets of her jeans, she walked down the street and looked at the ground as she walked, deep in thought. Hearing about the two other assassins, Black and White, she wondered if she would be in store for another attempt on her life.

* * *

_Author's note:Whoa, took a bit longer then I thought it would. Hope you're all still there...hello?...anyone? Anyway, my beta is back and better then ever. His brain printing out ideas like dollar bills in a counterfeiting operation. We have some pretty good ideas for future updates so stick around and maybe you'll enjoy yourself. Oh and before I forget, remember this. "Don't always count on your eyes to see." I'll leave it to you to figure out just what that means. Until next time..._

Tex


	13. Thank you

**Chapter 13**

**Thank you**

* * *

The wind began kicking up again, causing the papers clutched in the raccoon's paw to violently twitch around as the parchments whipped back and forth. The more Sly read in Dorian Booker's file, the less positive he thought of him. "January fifth, nineteen ninety-six, Constable Booker of the Stockholm Police Department was filed for excessive violence against Bruce Burris after rapidity striking him with the handle of his firearm while perusing him on foot for armed robbery and attempted murder. Burris was reported to have a broken nose, fractured jaw, and class one hemorrhaging." Sly grimaced and nervously rubbed the tip of his nose in thought.

Not wanting to continue, he rolled up the files and shoved them into the red holster strapped to his thigh. Sighing, he watched the sun, leaning against the stone gargoyle high above street level. The perfect vantage point to see both Carmelita's opened window as well as the perfect spot for a sunset. Unfortunately, it wasn't late enough for the sun to begin its decent so he shrugged and folded his arms as he listened to the sounds of the world around him. A sound soon caught his ears attention.

It was a familiar noise. The scream of police sirens soaring down the streets made his ears twitch as he leaned over to the edge of his perch and followed the cruiser's trail with his eyes. "Speeding to a crime I didn't commit, I'm insulted," he joked with a grin on his face. Rolling his shoulders forward, he leapt into the air as he rolled forward and grasped a few blue cables out from his holster. As a gust of wind kicked up, it pushed the hang glider open as the force flung the raccoon upwards until he began gently floating down to street level.

Coming to a rolling landing atop a roof, Sly watched as the cruisers switched off the sirens and the lights and surrounded a shabby looking warehouse covered in yellow police tape. Lifting up his hat, he scratched his head in thought and glanced around the vicinity. Catching a faint silhouette in the distance, Sly quirked a brow and sprinted down the length of the rooftop before vaulting over a gap and landing onto the next roof in line. Squinting, he pulled out his binoc-u-com and zoomed in onto the departing figure. His eyes grew large as he saw a head full of curly long bluish black hair.

Carmelita. Running away from a crime scene? It couldn't be more obvious if a sign was held up in front of your face, something was wrong. Sliding down a drain pipe, Sly pressed himself against the wall and watched out of the shadowed corner of the alleyway. Carmelita walked with her paws shoved into her pockets and her head laid low with the collar of her jacket flipped up, a sure sign that she didn't want to be noticed.

It's funny; people tend to draw the most attention to themselves when they don't want to be noticed. Glancing around, Sly slinked away from the shadows and began slowly creeping behind Carmelita. The vixen was oblivious that the raccoon was walking right behind her for the last five minutes. Crossing another alley, Sly reached up and gently cupped his paw over the fox's mouth and whisked her into the dark alley. Her heart nearly jumped out of her throat as her back was pressed against the wall and she looked up with shaking, nervous eyes.

That was until she knew who had grabbed her. "Hey," the raccoon said with a light smile. Carmelita's brows drew together in a glare as Sly brought his paw away from her lips.

"Hey, if I wanted you to give me a heart attack, I would have asked for it!" She snapped, keeping her voice low. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"I should be asking you the same question, hon." She pushed him off her as she pulled on her jacket, freeing it from wrinkles. Straightening her hair as she combed her fingers through it, she placed both paws on her hips and gave a stern look at the man.

"I asked you first, start talking, ringtail."

"Of course, angel," his statement made her eyes roll. "There I was, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I happen to hear police sirens. Curious, I investigated and what should I see, but a pair of officers dragging out a bruised and battered bat in handcuffs and you fleeing the scene in the distance. Care to explain your latest period of strange behavior?"

"Excuse me?" Her eyes grew again. "What do you mean latest and just what are you accusing me of, criminal?" She jabbed a finger right in front of his nose as he drew back. His brought his gloved paws up in defense as he raised an eyebrow and gave a thin frown.

"Well, what I think you've done was something quite out of character for you. Being so black and white about the law, I thought you would never go vigilante." Flinching back again, Carmelita held up a golden badge and shoved it into the raccoon's face.

"See this? This is what separates me from those maniacs that think they can put the law into their own hands. Now, about my other question..."

"How was the kiss?" His dialogue caught her off guard.

"What?"

"The kiss, Carmelita," his tone became a bit more stern as he lowered his paws to his sides. "You never warmed up that quickly to me when I was your partner. I wanted it to be special too, that's why we both waited until that night on the balcony. But you go off and kiss him, and don't say you didn't enjoy it."

"You saw that huh?" Carmelita looked down at the floor for a moment, her irises darting around nervously. "I owed it to him, Sly. He saved my life; he nearly died trying to save me. We are partners and friends, it was just good company."

"That was no friendly kiss as far as I'm concerned."

"Sly Cooper, do you think I'm just some cheap hussy?!"

"No, no, Carmelita! It isn't that, it's..."

"Well...?" Sly curled the corner of his lip down in a frown as he drew in a sharp breath and closed his eyes.

"He isn't who you think he is. Carmelita, that guy's dangerous."

"And you would know this how?!" She spat at him as she crossed her arms just underneath her breast. "What makes you such a good judge of character?" Sly paused as he tried to think of how to word his next statement.

"I...well, 'borrowed' his files from the police station."

"If this is your way of trying to convince me..."

"He took mine as well!" Carmelita became silent. "He didn't tell you about that, I'm sure. My old files from when I was your partner. Carmelita, listen to me," he reached up and gently clutched her shoulders.

"He has a history of violence. It is directed towards criminals, but it is still unnecessary for any law enforcer to act that way. Here," he reached down to unbuckle his holster and pulled out the rolled up sheets of Dorian's files. "Just take a look at them and you will know what I mean. Carmelita, I don't want you around that man, he isn't safe."

She shrugged off his paws and gave a deep sigh. "I can't believe you, ringtail," her words made the raccoon's expression contort to one of puzzlement. "You're going to sabotage an officer of the law all because of one little kiss?"

"I'm not sabotaging him! And that wasn't a little kiss. I'm trying to help you, Carmelita."

"Enough! I'm tired of hearing about all this; let's just drop it for now." Both animals' ears perked to the sound of police cruisers roaring past them in the distance. "Can we continue this somewhere else," Carmelita sneered, flattening her ears. "Or would you like to be cooped up in a prison cell with me?"

Cracking her knuckles menacingly, Sly stepped back and allowed the vixen to exit the shadows of the alley first. Walking beside her, he glanced around nervously as he was fully dressed in his thieving attire, his golden hooked cane clutched in his paw. He wasn't one for not being out in the open, at least not when he wasn't in in disguise. He soon figured out that the vixen was leading them into the park, away from the crowds and all the prying eyes. Sitting on a wooden bench near the river that ran through the middle of the park and into the sewer system of the city, Carmelita began talking again.

"So you're jealous, is that what this is about?" Sly couldn't help but stifle a shout of laughter as his body jerked to the giggling he held in his mouth.

"Jealous, me, I'm jealous of Dorian Booker?" Carmelita's glare caused the raccoon's smile to be wiped from his face almost instantly. "I'm not the jealous type; I just don't like potentially dangerous men placing their lips on yours."

"You are jealous," she gawked, a smile creeping over her lips as she giggled. "You're jealous of him."

"I am not! Enough, let's focus on something more important. I found a document that you were to be eliminated. Have there been any more attempts on your life recently?"

"Well, just a few days ago, a man by the name of Indigo Blue drugged Dorian in order for him to gain access into my apartment. He tried to kill me with Dorian's sidearm but he got distracted. Then he gassed me with some type of hallucinogen. I saw some pretty horrifying things. Fortunately, the gun was clutched in my paw and I shot him in the shoulder. He must still be out there."

"Wait," Cooper held up a paw. "When exactly did he attack you?"

"The night after my evening with Dorian, so it was about...three days."

"That's the same time I came back from the UK to find you. I found a document saying that you were to be assassinated so I came back to Paris. After watching you two...I..." He trailed off as he figured out what words to say. "I met this woman, she was very accommodating, but I had to refuse her offer. She pulled a knife on me and said she was hired to kill me. It couldn't have been coincidence that at the same exact time you were attacked, I was attacked. The same person wants us dead, Carmelita."

"I know who it is," she said, lacing her fingers together. Sly raised both brows in astonishment for a moment and leaned closer toward the vixen's face.

"You do? Well who is it?"

"He goes by the name 'Colonel'. The thug I roughed up says he has a team of highly trained assassins after me because I am a potential threat to his plans."

"The Colonel...I'm guessing he isn't the one trying to sell you fried chicken is he?" Carmelita quirked her brows at his statement and simply shrugged it off.

"Listen, Sly. The thug said that there was Indigo Blue who I mentioned tried to kill me, but he also said that he had a partner, a seducer by the name of Scarlet Crimson. Was she the one who tried to kill you?" Sly nodded and sighed as he leaned back in the bench.

"Yep, that's the one. She tried to crush my throat and slash me to ribbons. A car sped down the road we were fighting on and the driver was blinded by the rain storm. She got hit pretty hard, but I saw her walk away. They must still be out there, and from what we did to them, I'm thinking that they will consider their contract to kill us all the more personal."

Carmelita brought a paw to her chin. Looking back towards the raccoon to her right, she frowned slightly and brought a paw to rest on his. "Look," she started. "I'm sorry you saw me with Dorian and that it upset you. But we were just friends, nothing serious happened. Yes we did kiss, yes it was longer then I would have liked. But the fact of the matter is I don't love him. We are friends and partners, that's as far as it's going to go."

Sly looked at the orange furry paw that rested atop of his. Curling up the sides of his lips, he turned his paw around so that his fingers wrapped around her palm. Raising his head, he looked forward for a moment and watched the leaves of a nearby tree flutter and break off in the breeze. "We'll just forget about that for now. Speaking of which though, where is he?"

"In my room at my apartment," her statement made Sly look at her with thin lips. "Don't worry; he didn't violate me if that's what you were thinking." Sly remained quiet as he was beginning to feel uncomfortable. And of course, Carmelita only wanted him to continue feeling this way. "He and a few other officers stayed near my apartment to make sure I wasn't killed by anyone."

"Do they know you're gone?" Sly inquired. Carmelita couldn't help but glance at him and give a smirk and a shrug of her shoulders. Sly chuckled as he leaned back on the bench again. "See, I told you I was rubbing off on you, Carmelita." The fox shook her head and gave off a stern look, gently shoving her paw onto his shoulder, causing him to stumble.

"You're a horrible influence, you know that?"

"You know you like it, it makes life exciting for you," he chuckled. "Just think how my influence might rub off on our kids someday." Carmelita quickly brought a paw to cup over the raccoon's mouth. With her free paw, she extended her index finger and jabbed it in front of the thief's face.

"You can stop right there, ringtail," she warned. "You're going from zero to sixty and I'm not one for rushing into things. Besides, who to say that will ever happen?" The vixen could feel his lips moving from under her palm.

"It is a possibility. You mean you never thought about it before?"

"No," she lied. She felt Sly's lips move again as he formed a wide grin on his face under her paw. The raccoon could see it as clear as opening a book and reading the printed text. Gently grasping her paw, he slowly moved it off his face, the smile still painted on his lips.

"You don't have to lie, I won't tell anyone. I promise." He sighed and looked back at her as he rested his arms on the backrest of the bench, limply hanging his paw off the edge so that his fingertips brushed against her shoulder. She shrugged off his paw but he continued lightly touching her and wiggling his fingers in her neck, causing her to jerk back and fight off a grin that was steadily creeping onto her face. She shoved him again and huffed.

"God, you are so annoying," she gave a drawn out tone. Sly merely chuckled as he straightened himself back onto the bench and slowly began touching and tickling her neck again.

"You know, you would be the first fox in the Cooper family line. Our kids would look so-

His statement was cut off as Carmelita brought her paw over his mouth again, giving him a stern look. "You just don't know when to quit, do you," she trailed off as Sly raised his eyebrows and looked at her with sparkling brown irises. She sighed and hung her head. "I want a girl." Sly blinked as Carmelita withdrew her paw from his face.

"You want a daughter? Can I ask why?"

"Simply," she smiled as she looked down at the cobblestone floor, happy thoughts swimming through her head. "Because I'd want to take her cloth shopping, that way I could dress her up in nice dresses, make a total girly girl out of her. It's something I've always wanted to do if I were to be a mother."

"And if it's a boy...?" Sly quirked a brow and smiled as he looked at the woman sitting next to him. Carmelita glanced up and gave him a playful shove to the shoulder.

"You could take him cloths shopping. I can't ever understand boys when you take them shopping. You ask them what they want and they don't give you an answer."

"Well boys are easier; they just don't care as much as a girl does. Most boys are pretty mellow while girls take a bit more time. But I wouldn't care; I'd love having either a boy or a girl. But if I had a son, I could teach him a thing or two about his ancestry." He froze as the vixen leaned up and came very close to him, her eyes boring into his.

"You're going to teach my future son to be a criminal?" Sly smirked and furrowed his eyebrows upward in a nervous expression.

"Well it is his birth right...unless mommy didn't approve." Carmelita sat back down and crossed her arms.

"I don't want any of this 'Cooper Clan, long line of master thieves' nonsense to be shoved down his throat like it was with you I'm sure. I want him to make a choice, if he wants to be an upright contributor to society, get a good education, and get a real job, then you better not stop him when he's old enough to choose his own future, same goes if we have a daughter. But..."

"But...?"

"If they do ever want to learn about their past and their ancestry...I won't stop you. I'll probably never understand just how important it is to you that you share this knowledge with our future family, but that doesn't mean I want it completely erased and never mentioned again. I couldn't do that to you, or your ancestors."

"Carmelita," Sly said in a heartfelt tone, causing the vixen to turn and look at him, leaning closer.

"Yes, Sly?" The raccoon leaned closer, their faces just inches apart as Sly clutched her paws into his. His expression changed from one of pure love and desire to one of less seriousness as a smirk crossed his lips.

"Did you just say 'our' future family?" Carmelita's eyes grew as her thought of hearing him give a heartfelt speech to her was shattered.

"Are you ever serious?!" Sly chuckled as he was shoved away again and she huffed near the far edge of the wooden bench.

"You did, you said 'our' family."

"I-I didn't say a damn thing. Shut your mouth, criminal!" Sly was too busy laughing to give an understandable response. Each word coming out winded as his lungs burned for air as he laughed harder. "God, I hope our kids don't end up like their father. One Sly Cooper is even too much for me to handle right now."

"You said 'our' again."

"I said be quiet!" She snapped. Sly clamped his mouth down tight, a smile still creeping up onto his lips as he tried to resist opening his mouth and bursting out in laughter again. Drawing in a deep breath, he sat back up straight on the bench and slowly snaked his arm behind her and wrapped it around, placing his paw on the shoulder farthest from him and pulling her into am embrace.

"You'd make a great mother," he said, seriousness returning to his voice. "I know you're not one for looking too far into the future, but it is a possibility, right?" Carmelita grumbled as she looked at the stone floor once more. Sly leaned in closer and perked up his ears. "What was that, sweetie?"

"I said," she lifted her head, flattening her ears. "Yeah...there is a possibility, and thank you for saying I'd make a good mother."

* * *

A soft groan emits from the limp form on the carpet. Dorian Booker slowly opens his eyes as his nose tingles to a heavenly scent. "Hey...I smell lasagna." His head bobs up and down as his lower jaw moves, resting on his belly on the carpet of Carmelita's bedroom. He groans again as he reaches up and rubs his head, feeling the jackhammer slowly crack his skull straight down the middle.

Sitting up, he straightens his back, listening to it pop and cracks from lying in the uncomfortable position on the floor for almost three hours. Glancing at the digital clock on the nightstand, he groans as another mental sledge hammer smacks his head. "I was ripped off, getting a headache like this and I didn't even have a single drop of the hard stuff." Gasping, his eyes grew big as his memory caught up with him. Reaching for his belt, he pulled off the radio clipped to his side and switched to all frequencies.

"This is Constable Dorian Booker, Carmelita Fox is not on the premises, repeat, Carmelita is not on the premises!" After a pause of static filled feedback, alarmed police officers responded to Dorian's claim.

"_Rodger that," _said a voice from the small device. _"We will begin a sweep of the entire area. We'll report if we find anything." _Clicking the radio back onto his belt, Dorian stormed out of the room and grabbed the coat and holster that carried the red shock pistol in its leather grip. Pulling out the non-lethal firearm, he checked the ammunition count and shoved it into the holster as he threw on his coat and flew out the door.

Sprinting down the street, his red necktie fluttered behind him along with the back of his long coat, moving into the parking area and sliding into his mustang. Firing up the V-8 engine, it roared as he sped onto the street. "Where would you go," he thought to himself. "If I were Carmelita..." Turning on the police scanner in his car, he listened in for any lead as to where the elusive vixen could be.

"It's been three hours, who know how far she could have gotten," he growled. "You stupid, stupid fool, how could you let her slip away like that?!" He slammed his fists onto the dashboard like a drummer possessed. He didn't care that he was bringing harm to his car from beating on it right now; he was far too stressed for anything else to be on his mind. Hearing nothing but static, he switched off the police scanner and parked into an alley.

Slamming his forehead on the steering wheel, he lay there for a moment as he thought. An idea came to his mind, maybe a lead to the whereabouts of Carmelita. That devious smirk, the black and grey fur, the blue sweater...the golden cane... "Cooper..." The ocelot shifted into reverse and turned around as he peered out the back window of his car. Backing out of the alley, he turned and drove back onto the road.

Determination etched onto his features, he sighed as he had to stop for a red light. Watching the cars pass by in front of him, a black Toyota truck came to a halt right next to him. Glancing to his left, the ocelot saw as a pair of shady looking canines stared at him through their rolled down window. Their menacing glares were returned as Booker slowly reached for his pistol and rested it on his lap for easier access. Watching them depart as the light shown green, he uncurled his fingers from the gun's handle and made a right turn.

Parking his car down behind an abandoned playground, Dorian pulled out a pair of binoculars, focusing the lenses as he surveyed the area around him. He had a feeling that Cooper was close, seeing as he always appeared near Carmelita's apartment, he must reside close by. Looking through the trees and the grass of the park, he saw many couples together, but none of them were the fox or the raccoon he searched for. "Dammit Carmelita," he sighed as he lowered his binoculars. "Don't get yourself killed."

* * *

"My god," Carmelita gasped as she took in the breathtaking view. High atop the perch of the multistory building, the vixen glanced over her shoulder towards the raccoon that sat by the edge, his back leaned up against a ferocious stone gargoyle. She was rather nervous to take another step closer, her legs wobbling as she kept her eyes glued to the floor she walked on. She grew stiff as she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist and perked her ears to the soft chuckling behind her.

"Don't be nervous," Sly said as he rested his head on her shoulder, slowly forcing her to walk closer to the edge. "I've got you." The sun was beginning to sink over the horizon, giving off its last, bright beautiful rays before it crossed over to the other side of the world.

"No wonder you like high places," she sighed as she watched the golden ball sink further down from the sky. "And I thought you only came up on rooftops to get away from me."

"Truth is I really hate having to run away from you. But you shooting watermelon sized globs of electricity helps ease it up a little. Even though it's rather fun when you give chase." The sudden breeze blew by and nearly lifted the raccoon's blue hat from his head. Before he could reach up to fasten it to his brow, a furry orange paw came up and grabbed it off his head.

"I'll hold onto it till the wind stops," Carmelita whispered along with the passing breeze. Pressing the blue cap against her chest as she stared out into the horizon, Sly un wrapped his arms from her torso and kept her steady with two paws placed on her shoulders.

"See, you just have to get used to it," he chuckled. "It's not as bad once you forget how high you're standing."

"And just how high are we standing?" She turned to look at the face standing behind her and he gave a knowing smirk.

"Oh, let's not spoil the moment. I never would have thought you would be nervous of high places. You're always bounding off rooftops chasing after me."

"Well this is different," she stated. Slowly easing herself into a sitting position, Sly came to sit behind her as he wrapped his arms around her once more. Resting her head against his chest, Sly could smell the scent that wafted up from her soft, ebony curls. As the sun was nearly erased from the sky, it gave off one last flash of orange and gold and purple as the light reflected off the clouds, and then disappeared. Carmelita sighed as a soft smile spread across her lips.

"Thank you," she whispered, watching as the sky continued to darken. Lights from the windows of homes glistened as they appeared like a reflection from the stars. Since it was still too early to see any stars, as well as from all the lights in the city, the couple simply watched the ocean of lights. "This was really nice, despite all that's been going on."

"My pleasure," Sly whispered back as he rested his chin on the vixen's shoulder. Resting her cheek against his, they continued to watch the city as if it were a living, breathing entity. "I had a feeling that you would like it up here." The wind whistled through them again, brushing against their bodies and slithering through the bristles of their fur. Turning around, she faced him as she looked into the endless void of his chocolate brown eyes.

Leaning forward, they gently touched lips as the bluish glow of the moon bathed them in ethereal light as it began to rise from the horizon. Moving her arms, she hugged his torso and pulled herself closer to him as he covered her in an embrace. Sly's eyes slowly closed as he became lost in the feeling of her lips being pressed against his. She closed her eyes as well, moving her paws up to feel the bristling fur of his cheeks as she cupped both sides of his face. Slowly pulling away, warm breath flew from his parted mouth.

The vixen continued to gaze into those brown eyes, those beautiful eyes of his. She began to feel lost in them, much like she did when they were living together. Carmelita didn't fight it any longer though, she didn't deny it, and she didn't resist it. She simply rubbed the sides of his face as she felt his arm coiling around her waist like a snake, pulling her closer to him until their noses rested against each other. "Thank you."

* * *

A Cadillac's motor roars and then dies down to a low purr as it slows to a halt and the engine's power is doused. The glowing blue orbs of Indigo's eyes are all that could clearly be seen from the shadowy confines of the car's cabin. They disappear into the darkness for only a moment until they reappear as the malamute blinks his eyes and glances toward the vixen sitting next to him. "This is where it's meant to be," he whispered. "This is where it's supposed to happen."

Scarlet rolls up the sleeve of her coat and glances at the watch strapped to her wrist. "The time is correct as well, he should be here any moment." As if on que, a long, sleek limousine pulls up to the empty parking lot as three large silhouettes emerge from the vehicle. One of the blobs of pure darkness moved towards the back of the long car and opened the end door. Another form of shadow crawled from the passenger section of the limo, this one smaller and less burly then the three others.

The burning embers of a cigar could be seen as the small source of light lit up an area of the paw that clutched it. Both Scarlet and Indigo emerged from the car and slowly stepped towards the smaller figure. The shade moved forward as well, motioning for the three other shadows to stay near the car. The glowing tip of the cigar flared as the shadow inhaled a breath of smog and expelled it from between the gaps of his sharp teeth. "Miss Crimson, Mr. Blue," the shadow stated.

"Colonel," the two animals said in unison. Blue's irises shifted to look behind his employer at the darkened forms near the vehicle. "You wished to meet with us. I hope nothing unfortunate has arisen."

"No, Indigo, everything is fine at the homestead," the Colonel said as he drew another cloud of smoke from the cigar, the flare of the burning tip illuminating the area around his pitch black irises. "Oh, everything except that those blasted Interpol officers and that dammed thief is still out there, alive and well!" His sharp tone caused both animals to cringe. His paws ceased shaking as he cleared his throat. "Indigo, Scarlet, you are my students, my apprentices. You are both dear to my heart, like the children I never had. But..."

The Colonel paused as he took another pull from the cigar and blasted the smoke into the two assassin's faces. Blue, being a smoker himself, lightly cringed as he tightened his throat. Scarlet on the other hand grimaced as she gave a stifling cough, her eyes filling with moisture from the irritating ashy smog. "You two are slipping, you both heard about what happened to Sterling?" The shadowy mob boss waited as both animals nodded their heads slowly in confirmation. "Yes, the good Mr. Silver is off to join Ivory. Ivory, bless his rotting, maggot filled heart was probably my greatest student, brought down by a bullet in his back from some rat bastard. That was his one flaw; he never paid attention, always talking to those confounded ghosts of his. For his folly, he is now six feet underground, slowly being eaten away by the ravages of time. Unless you wish to join him, you will not slip up any longer."

Both Blue and Crimson glanced at one another, their fingers lacing together as they held paws. "If I wanted to I could end both your lives right now with a flick of the wrist and a wave of my paw. But seeing as our numbers are running rather thin, you two will remain alive and well, as long as I get the satisfaction that I expect of you." Snapping his fingers, the Colonel turned around as the thugs began piling into the limo, one remaining outside to hold the door open for his employer. Before the Colonel departed, he tipped off the ashes of his cigar and gave one last pull before discarding it into a small container he withdrew from his pocket.

Pulling out a small envelope, he offered it to the blue eyed malamute and gave a nod as he walked away, disappearing into the black vehicle and was enveloped in shadow as the limo departed. Blue looked down from the exiting car to the envelope clutched in his paw. Opening the white envelope, both animals read down the sheet of paper explaining their objectives. A few photos fluttered into his paws as well, each one displaying the head shots of Inspector Carmelita Fox, Constable Dorian Booker, and Sly Cooper.


	14. Fell like Rain

**Chapter 14**

**Fell like Rain**

* * *

_Author's note: Another chapter in our story, and along with it, another note of recognition. Thanks to my beta, IgnorantOne, he has helped me finish this update because my mind was reduced to jello from my medicine. Thank you IgnorantOne fro saving this chapter in my weakened state and thank you for the solid gold ideas. Alright, before I make his head swell up to the size of a watermelon, we both proudly present to you chapter 14 of this story. Enjoy. _

* * *

The night was clear and beautiful. Many of the city lights were off at this hour, exposing the gleaming stars in the sky. A pair of crystal blue eyes gazed upon the endless sparkles of the dark void. The blue eyes blinked a few times before a pair of paws reached up and peeled off the colored contact lenses. Tom placed the colored lenses back into the carrying case, cleaning them off with the liquid that was given to him when he ordered the contacts.

"Perfect," he mused. He took a moment to glance through the lenses of the binoculars standing on the tripod by the window of his post. He noticed that Carmelita's window was closed, quite unlike her. But noticing the growth in police activity as well as Dorian Booker frequently coming in and out of the apartment building, he reassured himself that she was in capable hands, for the time being at least. "Now then," the jackal scratched his chin as he looked deeply at the picture of Indigo Blue clutched in his paw.

Glancing towards the small stand next to him, the looked at the photo, then back to the small bust where a rubber face mask was sitting on. He continued to add pieces of fur to match the white and black patterns of Indigo's face. Adding texture to the lips, the outline of the eyes, and the nose, Tom finished adding the small coverings of the eyelids to make the mask believable as possible. "At least I won't have to change my height or girth this time." Putting the last finishing touches, Tom cleared his throat and attempted to mimic the malamute's voice as best as possible from sheer memory.

"Ahem, well Scarlet, as much as I would like to kiss you, I'm afraid it would be similar as to kissing the millions of other men you twisted tongues with." Tom couldn't help but chuckle at himself, finding the change in his accent to be quite convincing. As he was putting everything away, his eyes grew big as he began to feel an icy chill run up his spine. Every hair began to stand on end and carry a tingling sensation on their tips. He breathed hurriedly, his chest heaving as he thought he could see the wisps of his own breath.

Yet it had to be at least seventy degrees outside, how could he possibly see his breath with the air being so warm? _"Honey, could you shut the window? It's cold tonight." _ Tom's ears perked up to the familiar voice that materialized out of nowhere. Clutching his beating heart, he glanced around the darkened room of his post and saw nothing.

"_It's your favorite, angel. I made it just for you; I gave you the tenderest cut. I hope it's cooked well enough, I know how you like you like it rare." _

"Who is there?" Tom glanced around as he drew in deep breaths to ease his racing heart beat. He froze and slowly moved his head until he was staring at a beautiful female jackal smiling at him. He watched the woman smiling at him and clutching a purse in her paws, dressed in a beautiful and elegant dress.

"_Glad to see you're finally dressed for the theater, love. Let's hurry before we're late." _

"No, it can't be..." Tom stammered as his eyes began to grow moist. Rubbing his fists against his eyes, he blinked once more as he looked at the woman standing in front of him. "Annabelle," he gasped in a shaking voice. A tear slid down his cheek as he slowly reached out with his paw, watching as the woman offered her own to him. As their paws touched, Tom felt his insides crystallize with frost as his paw passed through the woman's, tendrils of smoke coiling around his fingers.

The visage of the female jackal began to fade as she disappeared in the form of floating grey smoke. "No, Annabelle, please don't leave! Annabelle!" Crashing to his knees, he slammed a fist on the ground and stared at the floor as it was dotted by his tears that fell like rain. "Annabelle..." he whispered, "Don't leave me again."

Glancing out of the window, a shadowy form caught his attention. Standing alone atop a building's rooftop, the body was consumed in a long flowing coat; the fabric still despite a slight breeze blowing. Peering into the lenses of his binoculars, the jackal only saw the snow white fabric and the figure's backside. The head of the person began to glance over his shoulder, until fully turning around and greeting the jackal with a light smile. The clean white fur of the albino weasel also didn't tousle in the wind, his entire body being immune to the breeze.

Tom slowly lowered his binoculars form his eyes as he quirked a brow at the strange animal. _"She misses you,"_ the icy voice of the weasel caused goosebumps to rise on the jackal's skin. _"She wants to see you again." _Every moment the weasel opened his mouth, tendrils of silvery smoke and mist flowed from between his teeth, spiraling above his head until it dissipated into the air. Pushing up the frameless glasses farther up his nose, the weasel's grin widened as Tom blinked in puzzlement.

As he reopened his eyes, he saw that the snow white animal was no where to be seen. Not a trace or even a small sight of him fleeing from the scene could be found. "What in God's name," Tom pondered out loud. He rubbed his eyes and lightly shook his head as he figured he simply needed rest. He could have sworn that the animal was real, despite the way he carried himself, and being completely unaffected by the blowing wind.

And the smoke flowing from his mouth, what was the reason for that? Tom didn't notice a cigarette clutched in the animal's paw, nor even catching the smell of tobacco smoke. "How very strange..." The view of Annabelle was still clear in his mind, her voice repeating the very words she once said many years ago.

* * *

"We're honestly going," Penelope placed her paws on her hips and quirked a brow. "We are going to go all the way to Siberia at this time of the year?"

"I told you," Bentley said as he pushed the brim of his glasses farther up his nose. "That's where Clockwerk is being constructed. It means a lot to us to finally put an end to him. Being a thief yourself, your career must have suffered because of him." The little white mouse glanced to her left in thought before crossing her arms.

"Perhaps I had to...change a few things around to avoid him, but I get the importance. But how exactly do we plan on traversing a barren snow storming strip of land without anywhere to take up residence, no supplies, no shelter, and no where to rest?"

"Well my dear," The turtle grinned as he adjusted his glasses, tapping a few keys on his wheelchair, a small screen and keyboard sliding out from a small recess in the arm rest; wire schematics of a Russian T-74 main battle tank flashing on the screen. "On our second Clockwerk escapade, we, ah…"acquired" a little gizmo from a 'criminal correction' facility in Prague."

His hands flew across the keyboard, custom software coming online and executing the turtle's every command; the T-74 schematics being pulled apart piece by piece before being slowly built back up. Bentley grinned, turning his head towards Penelope; the gold wire schematics reflecting off of his thick glasses. "As much as I'd like to keep the tank the way it is…well," Bentley adjusted his glasses, the turtle pausing before he raised his hand above his head, "they say that necessity is the mother of invention!"

The turtle tapped a few more keys, wire models of equipment slowly attaching themselves to the modified hull of the heavily armored vehicle; its overall length increasing and its body widening. "You see, we gut this little beauty, take out _everything_….even the engine, we need something less beefy and more efficient…preferably three smaller engines working in tandem. We also need to remove the blocky fuel tank in the back and have a fuel tank that lines the inside of the hull. We'll also get some tank parts from a couple of contacts who work in a Czechoslovakia Military Scrap yard… He has a few…'second hand' T-74 hulls that should give us enough parts we need."

Bentley continued to make his plans, extending the hull by fusing the tanks hulls end to end; the turtle wanting to cut the hulls in order to make them mesh together. The new proposed fuel tank was to line all three hulls to cut back on space needed, add more room for better insulation, and allow the Cooper gang to add bunks including room for all of Bentley's equipment. "So you see, we extend the tank's dimensions, which will allow us to have three separate, smaller engines which will allow us to have the torque, and power we need to make it up even forty-seven degree inclines!"

The turtle grinned and typed away for a few more moments before a few more schematics slid across the screen to link up. "I'm going to add more insulation between the armor plating to make it so we don't have to expend so much energy on heating and we can put the excess into batteries incase the engines freeze…but they shouldn't with this new engine because a fellow technological compatriot and I are working on!" He beamed proudly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Penelope leaned over his shoulder to look at the specs. "Impressive," the mouse said as she raised her paw, "But logistics where this designs lack. There will be enough space from the looks of it for stacked bunks, a few days food and water…you're equipment takes up nearly thirty-three percent of our space and…" She eyed a good-sized open space the size of a large motorcycle, "And what is this? This shortens our capabilities."

Bentley looked at her before he adjusted his glasses. "That is where we will store the snow mobile. We'll want it for when we start getting closer towards the 'Colonel's' operation. Besides, any incline the snow mobile can make it up, theoretically, my "ATV" can make it up thanks to my genius and your craftsmanship."

"It has a name? 'ATV' as in 'All Terrain Vehicle'?" The short mouse asked; her eyebrow arching as she crossed her arms over her blue jean overalls.

"Of course not Penelope, It means "Arctic Traversarial Vehicle"…the length of this vehicle would make it impossible to traverse all terrains. This version is dedicated to surviving and navigating the rigorous Arctic Circle." Bentley stated matter-of-factly, re-adjusting his glasses.

"In fact, I am trying to get some parts to retro-fit your RC car and chopper for intense cold weather…an eye in the sky could be a great asset, especially if we can attach a camera and a military grade global positioning system." The turtle said as his fingers returned to his keyboard. "But I encountered a problem…there isn't enough room here for all of the equipment we need, so I designed two heated trailers to attach to my ATV. One for our food, which it should hold up to three weeks worth if Murray can curb his appetite if a life or death situation should occur…but if I can get my hands on some MREs, then we can double the amount of food we can carry."

The wire schematics shifted to the left as two streamlined tracked trailers assembled into view, one was smaller than the other, external heating units directed to pump warm air into the food cabin. The other was larger than the first, and it had a long, insulated black hose that ran to the fuel line. "I solved our fuel storage problem by creating this fuel trailer," he pointed out to the second trailer and the small screen enlarged the wire model, "The entire fuselage will be double insulated and will be lined with warming wires to prevent the fuel from freezing. For aerodynamic purposes, I rounded it so that it will flow through the disturbed air that the ATV and the food trailer will create. It will carry about five hundred gallons…so that should give us a range of one thousand two hundred miles…that is if I can get the engines I want. They have power and torque…and with a little of our combined handiwork…better fuel efficiency by twenty-nine percent!"

Penelope raised her brows and grinned. Seeing as Bentley had a rather solid plan of traversing the frozen wasteland, her fears and doubts were tossed to the wind. Perhaps they would find this hidden factory where they were constructing Clockwerk after all.

* * *

Silently, the two figures crept across the rooftop, the larger of the forms clutching the paw of the smaller of the duo. With the larger form leading, the two scampered across the roof until they hugged against one another and they both leapt across towards the next roof. Carmelita watched with excitement as Sly continued to lead her by pulling on her paw, wrapping around him as he jumped great distances and slid down the poles of street lamps. Slinking into the dark shadows of an alley, Carmelita slowly pushed off the raccoon as she lightly laughed, unwrapping herself from him. Sly chuckled along with her as they both stopped and gazed at one another for a moment.

The apartment complex was across the street from their hiding spot, each one looking to their left to see the inviting glow of the outside lights near the glass doors. "I guess it's time to say goodbye again, huh?" Sly's ears dropped as he clutched his blue cap and tightened his grip on it. Carmelita placed a paw on his and leaned up to plant a kiss on his forehead, rubbing the side of his face as she slid her palm down the side of his neck.

"I'll see you again, don't worry."

"I see you've forgiven me. I was getting worried that you would never let me live it down."

"Oh trust me," she said, placing the tip of her finger on the cold tip of his nose. "I'll never forget what you did to me." Sly slowly began to curve his mouth down into a frown. "But that doesn't mean I won't forgive you for it." Planting another light kiss onto his lips, she patted the side of his muzzle and shooed him away. "Now scram, there's cops crawling all over the place."

"Why Carmelita," Sly quirked a brow and gave a wide smirk. "Are you protecting me from being thrown into a cell? Yet another out of character display. You always seem to surprise me, hon."

"No, I just don't want you to slip up and get yourself caught by them...you are my criminal, I'll be the one to slap the cuffs on you." Bowing down, Sly placed his hat over his heart and made a graceful gesture with his paw as he blew a kiss to the departing vixen. Scaling the brick wall, he jumped onto the roof and looked over the edge, standing on the edge of the roof and squatting on the tips of his toes as he waved goodbye towards Carmelita. She returned the gesture as she turned around and pushed open the door and disappearing into the building. Slowly opening her door, she quickly turned around and closed it as she entered her apartment.

Stepping into her room, she caught a strange smell that blew into her face. Glancing down at the floor, she couldn't help but chuckle at the two plates of lasagna that sat on the floor, peacefully undisturbed. Dorian must have been in such a hurry that he had forgotten the food. Picking up both plates, she scrapped the cheesy tomato sauce drenched pasta into the trash bin and stacked the plates into the sink. She froze as she heard the sound of keys sliding into the lock and the doorknob of her apartment door began to turn.

Dorian slowly pushed open the door, looking tired and defeated as he lazily hung his head and gave a hissing sigh from his mouth. His ears twitched and his nose tingled as he quickly shot his head up and stared towards the orange fox that stood in front of him. "Carmelita," he gasped. Lunging forward, he wrapped his arms around her form and gave a crushing hug. "Where the hell have you been? I was worried out of my mind about you! I thought you would have been hurt, or worse!"

"Dorian," she groaned as she wormed her way out of his embrace. "I'm fine. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself, and I don't need a bodyguard."

"Still, I was just worried for you. I don't want to see you get killed." Placing his paws on her shoulders, he pulled off Carmelita's jacket and hung it on the hook by the door for her. His nose tingled as an unfamiliar scent wafted up to his nostrils. Sniffing her jacket, he found that the scent was coming from the leather fabric.

"That smell," Dorian whispered as he looked back to see Carmelita walking to her room. Narrowing his eyes, he hung the jacket up and walked behind Carmelita. "So, where have you been," he asked with false innocence. "You were gone for quite awhile."

"Look, I'm sorry I brought you into a choke hold and made you black out. But if I didn't get out of here, I would have gone crazy. I was a prisoner in my own apartment, Dorian. Please try to understand."

"Oh I sympathize for you. I'm not one for being locked up and pushed into the corner like you were. But you could have given me a warning." Glancing away, he rubbed the back of his neck and drew in a breath, his vertical irises shrinking to thin slivers. The scent came to him and assaulted his sense of smell once more. "Carmelita," The fox turned around as she heard her name.

"Yes?"

"You didn't answer my question. Where were you?" The stern tone of his voice caused the vixen to firmly plant her feet on the floor and narrow her gaze.

"I went out."

"Carmelita," Dorian took a step forward, leaning his head towards the fox and sniffing around the fur of her neck and face. She withdrew back and quirked her brows in puzzlement.

"Are you...smelling me?"

"That scent," Dorian said as he tried to take in Carmelita's smell once more. "I don't recognize that smell. I know the scent of every officer in Interpol, and no one would get that close to you to leave a scent that powerful on your body. If it wasn't another officer...and I'm positive it wasn't some pedestrian...it had to be only one other person."

"Enough," Carmelita snapped as she pushed Dorian's snout away from her. He snorted and rubbed his nose as he furrowed his eyebrows.

"You were with Cooper tonight, weren't you?" Carmelita's mouth became dry as cotton as her heart climbed up her throat. "He isn't the only one who loves you." Carmelita swallowed hard to push down the beating heart that she thought would jump from her mouth.

"W-what did you just say?" Standing still, Dorian walked towards the vixen and gently cupped her cheeks.

"He's not the only one that loves you, Carmelita." The vixen attempted to speak, but her jaw was unresponsive, the helpless lower half of her mouth stayed shut. "I mean, I don't see why you still go to him, he left you in the middle of the night. He left without a word, not telling you where he was going, what he was doing, or why he even left in the first place." Pausing, the feline allowed his words to sink into the vixen so that she could comprehend what he was saying to her.

"Carmelita...he left you. Sly Cooper abandoned you. He lied to you for nearly a year until he left to become a thief once again, stealing from all over the world. Now ask yourself, how many times has he done something like this to you? How many times has he lied to you and played you for a fool, embarrassing you in front of your fellow officers? That time in America, the Karakcov Volcano, India, Canada, Paris, Australia? And now, after an entire year, he was leading you by your nose until he got bored and decided to return to his old tricks."

Carmelita shook her head, shrugging off any thoughts that what Dorian said was true. "That's false."

"Is it?" Dorian questioned. "Would it be out of character for a thief to do whatever it takes for them to get what they desire? You have to admit, whenever he is within your grasp, he always manages to charm his way out and slip through your fingers." Stepping back, he turned around and stared out the window, the curtains pulled back to reveal the dark city streets. "Besides...what if he is behind all of this?"

Carmelita immediately retorted, finding her voice and using it to great effect. "What, how could you even think of such things?!"

"How," Dorian snapped his head back to stare at the vixen. "Because the attempts on your life didn't start until after Cooper left! You've had more attempts on your life in three months then most crime bosses do in their entire careers! Think about it, what if he joined Interpol to learn all about us from the inside out? Our information gathering techniques, patrol patterns, operation patterns, our chain of command...maybe even obtain pertinent and valuable information that only Interpol officers have access to!"

The feline stopped and drew in a breath before continuing. "It could be him. He could be the guy trying to knock you off." Carmelita shook her head, tousling her ebony curls.

"No, that isn't true. The one trying to kill me is known as 'The Colonel'. It isn't Sly, it can't be."

"How do you know that Sly isn't this 'Colonel' person? His profile says that he is a master of disguise and deception, hell he fooled all of Interpol, even you for an entire year!"

"Stop it! This is absurd, Dorian!"

"Funny, Interpol thought the same thing about Danny Falcony...and yet his crazy plot worked. Now he's sitting in Spain with a mansion on a hill, untold millions of dollars in a Swiss bank, and no one can touch him."

"Falcony? That criminal? That cold blooded falcon was a fluke," Carmelita snapped. "No one expected him to hire an assassin to try and kill him _just_ so he could throw off our suspicions! And Sly said a woman tried to seduce and kill him...an agent of the Colonel's. So it can't possibly be him."

"Of course Falcony was a fluke...but… how do we know his story is even true? He could have slept with this woman for all you know. And if she was working for him, it wouldn't be all that farfetched for her to make it look like she tried to kill him. Dammit Carmelita, Sly Cooper could have a woman stashed in every major city in the world, and you would have no knowledge of any of it, would you?"

Carmelita remained silent, frozen in mild shock. With every sentence he spoke, Dorian made a point flawlessly. "Besides...you don't even know the guy."

"Yes I do-

"No, you don't," the ocelot interrupted. "You only know his speech patterns and attitude from your run-ins around the world. And for that _one_ year you two lived together...it could have all been just one big joke to lure you in and make you believe."

"That's not how Sly Cooper operates."

"That sounds _very_ familiar…" Dorian said, scratching his chin in an exaggerated manner, then his eyes opened wide and he snapped his fingers; looking like he had a light bulb come on over his head, "Now I remember! That's the _same_ thing they said about the Zodiac killer out in the States. No one would have expected an old man to be a cold blooded killer, and yet he surprised them." The vixen barred her teeth and flattened her ears in a display of pure feral rage.

"Sly Cooper is not a killer."

"But he is a criminal. It's funny how things happen when criminals get backed into a corner. A purse snatcher unconsciously switches from a thief to a killer with the squeeze of trigger…all because he was being chased. A motorist with road rage causes the deaths of others because the police corner him**; **ramming his pick-up truck into a family van as he careens through an intersection. Cooper could have been running this operation running from the start, and when we started getting close to uncovering his operation, he decides that you are too much of a risk and tries to have you eliminated. It's just like that Japanese proverb, when pushed into a corner, the rat will bite the cat. "

Carmelita shook her head, not wanting to believe anything he was saying as she began to walk away. "You're wrong."

"Alright, what if I am wrong? What if Cooper is just as much a victim as you or me? Maybe he's really a nice guy with just a bad habit. But once things blow over...once all this is said and down and it's all in the past and you two are living together again," Dorian glanced away as he took a deep breath and then finally let it out. "What's to stop him from leaving you a second time?"

Carmelita froze again. Somewhere far away she could hear the ear splitting crack of her heart being smashed by a sledge hammer. She didn't want to believe it; she didn't want it to be true. She just wanted to wake up and find out it was all a dream. But it wasn't a dream. The ocelot slowly walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her in a comforting embrace, pulling her closer to him.

"I'm here for you, Carmelita. I would never hurt you...I feel for you like I feel for no one else in this world. I would never leave you." Carmelita simply stood there, not responding as she stared out into space. Dorian continued to hold her and she was stiff as a stone figure.

Placing her paws onto his chest, Carmelita slowly pushed herself away from Dorian and continued not making eye contact with the feline. Dorian frowned and sighed as he held out his arms to her. "It's ok, Carmelita. I know this might all come as a shock to you, but I'll be here for you when you-

Carmelita buried her fist deep into the feline's stomach and forced all the air out of his lungs. He gagged and doubled over, crashing to his knees and clutching his mid section. Carmelita simply walked past him and closed the door behind her. Leaning her forehead against the cold wooden surface of her bedroom door, she could hear the painful grunts as Dorian carried himself off the floor. "I understand that you're angry at me," Dorian's voice came from the other side of the door.

His voice was short of breath as he sucked in air hurriedly. "But you'll look back on this and thank me for showing you what Cooper could really be made of. I'm…sorry I had to say those things to you…but…better the heartache now rather than waking up to an empty bed and a short, little blue note. I'm sorry Carmelita…but just think about what I have said. I'll always be here for you..." His rasping breaths faded as he walked away, grunting as he clutched his stomach. Carmelita slowly blinked as she felt a few tears roll off her face.

* * *

The glowing moonlight cast the lone figure standing on the rooftop of the apartment complex. The white coat enveloped his entire form as his clean white fur gave off an ethereal glow. _"Such sadness," _the white weasel spoke, his voice sounding like something not of this world as it seemed to come from nowhere and echo out to all directions. _"The poor child...her heart has been split in two. Yes...poor child." _The coils of smoke bellowed from his mouth whenever he opened it to speak, two small streams of mist continuously slithered from his nostrils.

Slowly turning his head, he glanced up a few inches as if staring at an unseen person standing next to him. _"What is this? I see...I will help you then. The reason I was given these gifts is so that they could be used to help those like you. Yes...those like you."_

* * *

Carmelita sighs as she brings her forehead away from the door and slowly turned toward her bed. Freezing in place, her heart skips a beat as she sees a very handsome wolf sitting on her bedside, a can of ginger ale clutched in one paw and a first year police academy text book in the other. Carmelita couldn't believe her eyes; the grinning wolf's smile grows as she rubs her eyes. _"Are you ready to study, Carmelita? You have a big test tomorrow." _

Carmelita blinks again, watching as the wolf offers the can of ginger ale to her. _"Want some?" _Stanford Hesson, the same man Carmelita met during her first year at the police academy sat on her bed; reciting the very words he said years before Carmelita ever became an Inspector for Interpol. The wolf was probably her closest friend during her time at the academy, helping her study and become the strong woman she was today. His black and white views of the world were what inspired her during her career as an officer, yet his sweet, carefree smile melted her heart, much like a certain cunning raccoon.

Blinking again, she reaches forward with her paw to touch his outstretched palm. Her paw passes through his, her body becoming cold and stiff as his paw dissipates into smoke along with the rest of his body. He disappears in a wisp of mist until he is completely gone. The memories of when she first entered the academy flooded her mind. Entering the academy with nothing...and then there was Stan.

Stanford, the wolf who hailed from Alaska was starting his final year. Looking for help, Carmelita was partnered with Stan who helped tutor her into becoming one of the top graduates of the academy three years later. Such a nice man he was, so caring and kind. Carmelita couldn't help but be drawn to him, her feelings for him growing day after day. He of course treated her like a little sister, not seeing how she truly felt for him until quite some time later.

He was a great man with morals and values. Dreams and accomplishments that made him one of the greatest officers to ever graduate from that academy, until all that was taken away from him. A high speed pursuit left his patrol car completely destroyed; his partner had pulled him from the wreckage where he died before the ambulances could arrive. His partner, Inspector Barkley had arranged for the funeral for the hero cop. A photograph of Stan sat surrounded by a circle of flowers and the coffin that had the Alaskan flag draped over the casket.

Carmelita stepped forward, picking up the fallen officer's mantel and silently vowed that she would hold his black and white views of the law in the field against crime for her entire career. Carmelita focused back to reality, grasping the open space where Stan once sat, hoping to clutch something that wasn't there. Another tear rolled off her cheek as she breathed a sigh, gasping as she could see her breath despite the warm, humid night air.


	15. An unseen Kiss

**Chapter 15**

**An unseen Kiss**

* * *

**T**he chattering of a ringing phone shakes the figure sitting in the chair by the hardwood desk. A paw enveloped in shadow reached for the device. "Report, I'm in no mood for conversation."

"Even if it happens to be me you are conversing with, sir?" Indigo Blue's deep and rich voice filled the Colonel's ear. From the darkness, the mob boss slowly closed his eyes in slight anonymity.

"Blue...It has been a month. I trust your injuries are healing quickly?"

"Why else would I be calling?"

"It would be wise to not speak to me in such a way, Blue. I do not tolerate stubbornness. You always were the more rebellious one of the group. After I picked you up off the streets when your parents were killed, this is how you repay me?" A slight pause thickened the air in the room as if the entire universe was holding its breath, waiting for the response.

"Scarlet and I are well. Our injuries have healed and we've been training round the clock. Give us the final word and the world will be that less crowded." Colonel clicked a button on his desk and glanced at the open laptop to his left.

"Exquisite, I want a full report once you've succeeded. Oh and Blue...one final request."

"Yes?" Colonel paused a moment as he stared at a photo taken by one of his spies, the images of Carmelita, Dorian, and Sly filled his screen.

"Bring me the cop's badges as well as the Cooper cane. They will be fine keepsakes to add to my collection."

"It is done. Scarlet and I will call you once it is finished. Goodbye, sir." Colonel placed the phone back onto the receiver and leaned back in his chair. Pulling open a drawer to his desk, the Colonel pulled out a cigar from its golden foil sleeve and placed the end between his teeth. Striking a match, he cupped his paws around the flame and brought it to the tip of the cigar.

The flame was blown out as a sharp wind blew through the match's tip. Colonel quirked his brow at this and leaned back in his chair, sighing as he placed the cigar between his fingers. "I'm running low on matches, blow this next one out and I'll use your tail as a replacement."

"Something troubling you, sir," the voice from the shadows addressed. The youthful tone confirmed the owner to be of a young age. "You're usually so cheery, not that I ever see your face these days."

"I prefer darkness; it gives me comfort and a feeling of security. Besides," a red laser sight glowed in the darkness as the little crimson dot danced around on the young stranger's chest. "It also serves as an advantage against my enemies. I give people a real reason to fear the dark."

"Terrifying, sir," Colonel soon felt the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed against his temple. "But a gun is only as effective as the paw that wields it." The dark chuckling of the Colonel echoed through the room along with the unknown youth as he pulled the gun away. The _whoosh_ of the gun being spun around a few times filled the room until the gun was placed back into its leather holster.

"You have learned quickly. It is almost time for you to gain the title of professional killer. Your final test will be given to you soon enough."

"My final test, sir," the youth questioned. "When will it be presented to me?" Colonel held up a paw as if to halt the youth.

"It will be presented to you in due time, do not get anxious. Keep a firm grip on your feelings and emotions. A sniper will wait days if not weeks on end, remaining still until the perfect opportunity to silence their target. Whether they wish for others to see their target executed or not is entirely up to the timing of things."

"Right, sir...forgive me."

"Fear not," Colonel reached into the drawer and withdrew a pale yellow envelope. The youth clutched it with brown gloved paws. Flipping the paper folder open, he slid the files out of the sleeve and looked them over. "You are to execute Scarlet Crimson and Indigo Blue on sight."

"Crimson and Blue," the young killer stated. "But why would you have me kill your own assassins?"

"Blue and Crimson have already failed me once. The reason I kept them alive is to see if I could get any more use of them, now however they are expendable. They are slipping; their performance is beginning to show faults." Colonel sighed as he rubbed the side of his head. "If only Ivory were still alive, that man was one of the greatest and coldest murderers I have ever known."

Glancing back to the youth, he gestured to the door. "I expect Blue and Crimson to fail, it is inevitable. This is when I wish for you to end them. As they hobble away, you will execute them. I'll leave this method completely up to you."

After a short pause, Colonel closed the laptop slowly and ran his fingers on the smooth wood surface of his desk. "One thing however I require from you." The youth turned from the door to stare at the man sitting behind the desk.

"Yes?" Colonel leaned back and struck a match, bringing it up to the cigar's tip.

"Under the right sleeve of Blue's sweater is a small device used to spray a toxic mixture of panic inducing drugs. I wish for you to retrieve it for me. As for Scarlet, she keeps a knife on her person. I wish to have that as well." The youth nodded and placed the files under his arm as he walked towards the door.

Pulling it open, the light from the outside poured into the office a moment, illuminating the yellowish golden fur of the youth, small black spots dotting his long neck, face, and tail. The Colonel watched the youth disappear behind the closed door. With a small grin he reached into his desk drawer and produced another match, placing the tip against the edge of his wood desk and striking it; a yellow and blue flame bursting forth from the chemical tip. He brought the tip to the edge of the cigar and puffed in, making sure to wave the match back and forth to evenly light the Cuban blend.

"Ah…good help is hard to find these days… even when you train your own, it all just proves that young people don't have enough sense to listen to an old man such as myself."

He grinned and exhaled, thick, sweet smoke slipping between his teeth. "Don't fail me young man…or I will make sure you won't live long enough to legally have a drink."

* * *

"...Scarlet and I will call you once it is finished. Goodbye, sir." Blue clicked the red button on his cellular phone and slid it back into his pocket. Lifting up a small dumbbell, Blue curled the weight a few more times with his right arm, feeling his muscles tightening and moving along with the action. His shoulder still felt a little sore and stiff, but that was to be expected, he's been shot enough times to find these feelings routine.

He glanced to his left to see Scarlet sitting on the padded seat of a bench-press, slowly moving her wrist around in a circular motion. She bent her arm and raised it up past her shoulder. She was improving quickly. Sliding the knife she always kept on her, she stood up and took a firm grip of the hilt, feeling the studded, rubbery surface of the non-slip handle. The survival knife was held so that the blade lay on its side, making the sweeping action have the sharpened end pointing forward. The small jagged teeth on the other side of the blade always reminded her of a fang filled smile.

Normally the serrated side was used to tear through the wound as the knife was pulled out, yet she had taken the habit of using that side for a frontal attack whenever her target rubbed her the wrong way, figuratively as well as literally. She did a series of slashes and quick stabs, measuring how much strain it took on her arm with every action. She found that her arm didn't hurt with such a burning passion as it did weeks ago. Grinning, she slid the blade into the unseen sheath that not even Blue himself knew where it was located. Many things were still a mystery to Blue about the vixen, yet it seemed to only make his desire for her that much stronger.

He couldn't quite explain it, but the feeling of being around a woman he had no idea how many knives were on her person, well...it excited him. Scarlet blinked her elegant green irises and turned towards the malamute that was watching her. "You're getting better," Blue stated in his eloquent and sophisticated sounding voice. "Probably feels wonderful to have the cast removed."

"That it does," she responded. She chuckled for a moment in thought before turning away from his face. "I just thought of a new torture method for Colonel. Put a cast on a man's body so he has no ability to scratch himself. Honestly, I thought I would have gone insane if I couldn't scratch that biting itch on my forearm. Thank you for telling me the pencil trick, by the way."

"Not a problem at all, sweetheart." Crimson pulled out her knife once more and looked over the blade. She pressed a finger against the tip and felt it bite into the skin of her finger even with just the slightest bit of pressure. She grinned and licked the blood from her finger, sliding the knife back into its residence.

"Oh how I would love to meet Cooper again," she swooned.

"Honestly, what is so special about that man that you see?"

"Darling, you wouldn't understand," she turned back to watch him again as he stood up and placed the dumbbell back onto the rack beside him. "He was the only man to ever resist me, or land a blow on me for that matter." She thought more on Cooper for a moment, lost in her thoughts as Blue stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"So, getting old of me are you?" Scarlet heard this as her ears perked and she quickly turned around to stare at him.

"How could you think that, Darling? You know I save the better for you, I pretty much fake it when I'm with the target."

"I understand, sweetheart," Blue stated in an exaggerated tone. "But the simple feeling of knowing...just knowing is enough to make my skin crawl at times."

"Are you saying your disgusted by me?!"

"Sweetheart, do not jump to conclusions. I'm anything but disgusted by you. You know how attractive you are, and you know how attracted I am to you. It's just, sometimes I cannot help but...picture you making all the sounds you make...and it's not me who is provoking them." Scarlet shrugged out of his embrace and furrowed her brows.

She crossed her arms over her chest and gave a stern look. "I understand that you may be upset with me for thinking such things, sweetheart, but some things cannot be helped at-

"Oh I'm not upset; I'm a little farther from upset." Blue closed his eyes and let out a sigh as he prepared for the upcoming argument. "Blue, I use my looks and ways for one thing only, to kill that target. Not because I lie awake at night and think about how they will be in bed. You however can't seem to process that!"

"Can you blame me, Scarlet?! Every time you return completely ravaged. Your hair a mess, your cloths wrinkled and smelling of someone else's love stench. And you can barely walk at times."

"You know damn well I have no feelings for those people!"

"You've certainly said your share of Cooper. What a sweet man he was, what a kind and gentle soul and how you felt guilt of all things for having to kill him." He stopped for a moment to regain his composure, running a paw through his hair and letting the air escape from his nostrils. "Why is there this voice in the back of my head telling me to keep an eye on you around him? It's not that I don't trust you, sweetheart. But why don't I handle him this time and you go for Inspector Fox?"

"Why you-

Her paw flew towards his face. Blue's honed reflexes however caused his own paw to reach up and grasp Scarlet's wrist before her palm could connect to his face. She growled and ripped her arm free of his gentle grip. Going for the door, she grabbed her red leather coat and tied the belt tight around her slim waist. Grabbing her purse, she heard Blue walking up from behind her. "And just where are you going?"

"Out," she stated, raising her nose to him. "I need some air thanks to you. See you some other time." Blue was about to close the door that Scarlet had just pulled open, until the flash of steel and a blade flying past his head caused him to freeze. He slowly glanced to his right and saw a knife stuck into the wall just inches from his face. He sighed, curled the side of his lip down as he wrenched the blade from the wall and watched the vixen depart.

* * *

"Men...egotistical pigs," Scarlet snapped. She threw a few punches in the air in front of her as she walked, slashing the wind that blew around her with polished and painted claws. A quick huff of air escaped from her mouth as she pouted and regained her composure, straightening her hair with her paws and smoothing her clothing of wrinkles. It felt strange, she normally never left Blue's side, or he from her. They were each ones perfect match, conjoined in spirit.

One would even say their bond ran as deep as them sharing the same soul, each one feeling another's pain and joy. It could explain why they both felt so incredible when mating. Now however, Scarlet felt something more then angry, the sad, scary feeling of simply being alone. She felt cut off, like something was missing the moment she stepped out that door. It felt like one big fat puzzle piece that was missing from the rest of the picture.

She wasn't complete without Blue, not entirely. But she'd be damned before she came crawling back to him. She decided with firm resolution to simply let him wallow in his grief for awhile. The sound of her red leather boots stepping against smooth pavement echoed through her ears, she was the only sign of life out on the streets of Paris. Her own personal sanctuary of silence was broken though as the scream of police sirens caught her attention.

Her fur bristled for a moment before realizing the sirens weren't directed towards her, rather, they were headed in the opposite direction from her current location. Curiosity got the best of her as she took a deep breath and let it slide out of her mouth, watching the silvery fog of her breath floating in the cold air. Her nose tingled with the crisp scent of moisture in the air; it was about to rain soon, she could feel it coming. Breaking into a sprint, she runs around the edge of a building and heads for the blue and red flashes of light far off into the distance. She felt strange, her heart pounded and kicked like a machine pistol.

Not one for going to the police, she felt rather awkward. Her feet however continued forward. After about a mile, her legs burned from their uncontrollable urge to run as she finally caught up to the cruisers. Police radios went berserk as the static filled voices continued to spew garbled messages in code. She watched from a shadowed corner as she was accustomed to doing, seeing officers dragging out bound thugs.

She recognized a few of the faces almost instantly. They were quickly identified as some of the Colonel's small time underlings, thugs and criminals picked up from the streets and given a greater purpose by serving in Colonel's organization. They were hauled off and shoved into cars, counting about six underlings. Scarlet shook her head for a moment. "Poor fools," she whispered. "It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic."

What caused this to happen nagged at her mind. Normally Colonel's men were so calculating...the smart ones anyway. It isn't normal for the entire team to get hauled off to prison. What caused their blunder certainly wasn't from any police involvement. Glancing around, Scarlet drew in a breath as she saw a shadowed outline of a masculine visage scamper across the rooftops.

"Well I'll be damned..." Scarlet rolled off her tongue. Grinning, she glanced at the group of cops before blowing an unseen kiss to the Colonel's henchmen and melting into the shadows.

* * *

"Well," Cooper panted, wiping the sweat from his brow. "Maybe that will make a little less work for Carmelita to have to deal with in the morning." Sucking in a long breath, he quickly blew it out of his lungs as he clutched his cane between his teeth and grasped a drainage pipe. Sliding down the pole, his feet slapped onto the pavement. As he turned to leave the alleyway, an icy edge slid across his neck and caused him to halt.

"Shh, calm down..."a female voice murmured, "I just want to talk to someone who'll listen to me, maybe even help me relax a little." Sly's body remained stiff as he felt a cold, damp tip press against the side of his neck. He recognized the foreign object to be the tip of a cold black nose pressing into the fur of his neck.

"Scarlet," he breathed. His irises shifted to his right as he felt the vixen move her muzzle around in his fur.

"Surprised to see me?"

"Well, I would just be lying if I said no. But a part of me knew I'd bump into you soon enough. How's your arm by the way?"

"There you are, that sweet man I met back on these very streets just a month ago. And my arm feels perfect...when it's wrapped around you of course." Scarlet moved her arms to cup under the raccoon's chin as she ran her fingers through the fur of his neck. The blade was withdrawn from the flesh of his neck and replaced back to wherever she stored it. She nuzzled his neck, breathing in deeply. "We never got to finish what we started in that rainy little alley way...and I've been wondering night after night just what it would have been like to be one with the infamous thief, Sly Cooper...and I am wondering if you'd like to continue where we left off...without the worry of me killing you."

Sly raised his brows a moment, feeling Scarlet's lips move up and down the side of his neck. He nervously twitched as he felt her give little nips and nibbles, not knowing her true motives yet. "You were hired to kill me. I'm sure a vast sum of money will be given to you if you execute me. What's the true benefit of you letting me live? I would guess that my life pails in comparison to how much you are being paid to end my life."

"Must everything be so trivial? Must we always have to throw business into this? I just want to have some fun. We could start right where we left off. The alleyway...the coming rain...it all fits together so perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle." Sly gulped as he felt Scarlet grip his belt, not knowing how to act. If he moved, she had the ability to end him in seconds.

"I never did like jigsaw puzzles. I was more of a word search fan personally."

"Then, would you like to search me?" Only a dead man would ignore that comment. Sly went stiff and sucked in a breath, feeling the heat emanate from her body.

"Won't your partner be wondering what you've been up to, Miss Crimson? I wouldn't want to do anything either of us would regret later." Sly breathed a sigh of relief as Scarlet's arms were removed from his body. She folded her arms under her bosom, causing Sly to glance down for a moment, until shaking his head and forcing himself to focus on her face. That proved to be an equally intoxicating sight.

It was impossible; this woman was the physical embodiment of beauty. It was as if nature crafted her to be the dreams of men all over this world. "That man," Scarlet growled. Sly focused fully on her voice to try and forget about the distracting features. "He isn't who he was, not like the man I knew. When we first met...he was unbelievable, now he can't stand to leave me be for even a moment. Smothering me so much that I can't breathe, I had to get away from him for awhile, just so I could breathe again."

Turning back, she glimpsed Sly slowly backing away as if to flee while she was distracted. She lunged for him and pinned his shoulders against the brick wall. Despite being small and delicate, there defiantly was muscle underneath all that heaven. "I needed something to calm myself, to help push him out of my mind for just a little bit. I needed you." Sly turned away from her face as she leaned forward for a kiss. Her lips landing on his cheek, she moved her mouth while it rested against his face.

"You are special, not like any other man I've met. You were amazing, struggling to keep yourself under control. No man has ever done that before, you have a strong will, Mr. Cooper. I can't help but be drawn to you." Sly pressed himself further into the wall to try and evade Scarlet. "Come now, stop playing hard to get. Let's just have a little fun, what do you say?"

"You already know my answer," Sly stated sternly. Thunder split open the sky as rain began to slowly but steadily fall. Scarlet flattened her ears and pulled her lips from his cheek, looking up at him with a neutral expression. Not angry, but defiantly not happy either.

"You really love this woman you're holding out for." Sly stared at her in mild shock, not being able to process what she just said.

"What?"

"To be able to resist me and what I am willingly giving to you, even with the promise of not killing you afterwords...you still attempt to evade my every advance. This woman...she must occupy an enormous space in your heart." Sly watched Scarlet for a moment as she slid herself off him, patting his chest with a gentle paw. She could feel his hearth thumping against her palm, the lightest of smiles beginning to appear on her lips.

* * *

Dorian stepped inside and held the door open for Carmelita, shutting and locking it behind him; walking around the living room to shut all of the blinds and windows. "Hey Boss Ma'am…" Dorian said, his voice somber and tired, almost hesitant. "Let me go into your room and check it out first…wouldn't want-" Carmelita did not respond, only walking into her room and shutting the door, the audible click the doors lock being pushed into place. Dorian winced and sat down on the plush couch he situated in front of the doorway. He stared at her door, the words he spoke to her nearly a month ago played through his head like a tape recorder.

How could he be so insensitive? How could he say those kinds of things to the woman he cared for most? The feline shook his head. It was irresponsible and irrational…not something he was known to do, especially around the people he cared for; and as time passed, he made numerous attempts to hear her voice, but she didn't respond to his questions. Dorian glanced at the clock. It read "11:37 PM". The ocelot rubbed his eyes and rolled off of the bed, heading over to the fridge and opened it up.

In there were two bottles of dark red wine. One was explicitly labeled for the capture of Cooper, but the other one was fair game. The ocelot took the bottle and opened it, taking a long swig straight from the bottle before getting a glass. He sat down on the couch again, pulling a small table out in front of him and placing the bottle on the table. He took a short swig of the red alcohol, letting the liquid collect on his tongue before tossing his head back; the wine sliding down his throat.

His eyes shifted up towards Carmelita's door before thoughts of her punching him in the gut and slamming the door nearly on him raced through his mind. He closed his eyes and ran his paw through his hair, letting out a big sigh. _Did I really do all of those things? What happened to keeping my thoughts to myself?_ "Why did I have to fuck up so badly?"

He whispered, but his words seemed to travel through the thin wall and land in Carmelita's ears; the Spanish vixen sitting up on her bed and looking at the door. He cradled his muzzle in his paws, rocking side to side as he rubbed his eyelids; trying to regulate his breathing and force back the potential tears that threatened to slide right off of his face. "I'm sorry, Carmelita…I'm sorry." He whispered again, not knowing the vixen had moved and was currently sitting on the other side of the bedroom door; her ears now laid flat against the door. The ocelot picked up the bottle of wine and took another swig, setting it down on the hardwood counter with a soft click.

He looked around the apartment; drapes across every window and reinforced walling built to withstand automatic fire covering the street side apartment. Minutes passed as Dorian mulled his words over in his head, taking a sip from the bottle from time to time. Before the alcohol began to kick in, the boredom hit him first, overriding the brief feeling of guilt that turned his gut to ice. His paws twitched, aching for something to do. To ease his boredom, he pulled out his orange and yellow shock pistol and set it out onto the table and stared at it; the weapon's sheen still glossy from the last polishing he gave it last week.

He stared at the gold engraving of his badge and serial-number, running his thumb over the small, elevated lettering in the hilt. The ocelot sighed and lowered his head, the words he spoke to her flooded through his ears. "Have I've forgotten the basics of law enforcement? 'Innocent Until Proven Guilty?' 'Have the Evidence to Back Up Your Accusations?' God….I've not only fucked myself up….but Carmelita as well…"

He reached into his jacket and pulled out two small, black, leather cases; his cleaning tools. The ocelot started to carry them where ever he went the week after he spoke all of the wrong words to the women he cared for. He then pulled out his Glock 21C .45 ACP service pistol and ejected the custom made after-market eighteen round extended magazine, setting it down on the table before grabbing the slider on the firearm and pulling it back; the fat, forty-five caliber ACP leaping from the ejection port. With honed reflexes, Dorian watched the heavy round arc away from the weapon, his paw easily moving with its trajectory; the bullet landing in his outstretched palm. Dorian couldn't help but smirk and tossed the round into the air, catching it in a side-swiping motion as it came level with his face.

"I've still got it….." He chuckled, picking up the bottle of wine and downing some, "I guess I'm not drunk enough." He rolled the heavy .45 bullet around in his palm before setting it down onto the table next to his shock pistol; the bullet sitting up on its flat end. He picked up the extended magazine and slapped it into the housing; a familiar satisfaction washing through him as the magazine gave a loud 'click' as it slid into place. He flicked the charging lever down and the slide shot forward, a fresh round sliding out of the magazine, up the polished feeding ramp, and clicking into the barrel.

He flicked the safety on and pointed the weapon's muzzle away from any walls; not wanting an accidental discharge. With the weapon loaded, he grabbed the back of the slider and cocked it back. The newly loaded round exited the chamber and flew through the air, right into Dorian's waiting palm. The ocelot set the bullet on the table, primer side down next to its brother. The feline picked up the wine bottle and took another swig and set it down next to the two bullets.

Nearly half an hour passed as Carmelita sat on the opposite side of the thin door, waiting for the bored and guilty cop on the other side to finish with his newly invented drinking game. After hearing the fifteenth 'click' of a .45 being ejected from the ejection port, but then the vixen heard a distinctive thwack as the same round hit the floor and rolled under the table. "Dammit….I guess my little game is over….I lose…"

Dorian leaned down and managed to pick up the round, barely able to set it primer side down next to its fourteen companions in dealing death…or property damage depending on who was letting them loose. He slid out the three rounds full magazine and set it our on the table and ejected the round still locked in the chamber, not bothering to catch it as it slid on the table to bouncing into the wine. A loud chime echoed throughout the empty living room. The ocelot looked at the bullets and the mildly customized service pistol, shifting to the yellow and red shock pistol; his eyes locking onto the gold engraved emblem of Interpol. His eyes started to burn.

Shame he didn't know he had been suppressing burst forth, destroying the floodgates in his mind that had been holding them at bay. Nothing frees bottled up emotions like an empty bottle of alcohol. The constable buried his face in his hands; tears stinging his eyes as they trickled forth. "Who the hell am I!? What the hell have I become!?" He cried.

The vixen on the other side became startled, not expecting such a dramatic raise in his voice. Booker looked at the door, by now realizing that Carmelita had taken up residence sometime within the past forty minutes. "Carmelita," He choked out, "I am so sorry…I never meant…." He blinked back what tears he could, but they kept flowing back; threatening to overflow. "I….never meant to hurt you….I don't know what's….I don't know what's become of me."

"I can't stand you not talking to me…" He murmured, his voice lowering in volume, "I can't stand not hearing you say anything…acting like I don't exist. I get it!" He yelled, his face leaving his paws, "You're pissed at me! I fucking get it!" For a drunk, he did an excellent job of standing up and pacing around the small area in front of the couch.

"I said some things that I shouldn't have said, and now you're angry. I realize that those words hurt you more than I ever could have imagined…that what I've said tore at you. I realize that!" He continued to pace back and forth, his paws running though his hair; tears streaming down his face freely. "I feel worse than shit! And that's how it should be, but this is getting too much! Too much Carmelita! I can't take it anymore! Having you ignore me, not respond to my numerous apologies is eating away at me!"

"I could _hang_ myself with a rope made out of pure guilt!" He said, making the motions of tying a noose around his neck even though she couldn't watch him, "Is that how you want it? Get me to the point where I would throw myself off the Eiffel Tower just to make you happy? Cause with how I feel right now, I most certainly would, and I would do it gladly….just to see you smile."

"I shouldn't have said those things to you…they were based purely on conjecture, coincidence, and my own suspicions….I wish I hadn't even opened my damn muzzle." He said, eyes squeezed shut, trying to stem the ever increasing flow of liquid leaving his eyes; his attempts futile. "My dad has a special name for guys like me. 'F.F.M'. It stands for 'Felines with Fool Mouths'. And I say it now fits me perfectly."

"I thought I would help out by pointing out what _could_ be…and all I did was tear you apart from the inside. Now I wish that I'm all wrong about Cooper…that Cooper is just a regular guy with an illegal hobby and pants that don't stay zipped for any woman…instead of some overly elaborate killer and conspiracist."

The feline wanted to slap himself. "This is my own damn fault. Every ounce of pain you and I are feeling….its the product of my own jealousy." He hiccuped and sat down on the nearest piece of furniture; burying his muzzle in his paws again. "God Carmelita, I'm so sorry! This is all my fault!"

"I just don't know what is going on with me….I've _never_ acted this irrationally about a woman before… so why am I now?" The constable said, rubbing his cheeks. "I…I…I _love_ you, Carmelita Montoya Fox. You drive me crazy with every little thing you do. The way you look at me every day I pull up in my mustang, the way you chide me when I'm rash, the way you thwack me upside the head when I'm making a mistake…right down the more…primal things. The way you always look stunning, the way you walk, talk, the way you smell…the way you _taste_. That kiss….took me around the block Carmelita…"

Carmelita's eyes widened at his words, the strange combination of pain and joy flowing through his voice as he listed off his drunken apology and confession of love. "I know we haven't been partners long…six months…but in those six months I have never bonded with anyone so quickly…so _completely_. You are like the Yin to my Yang. The…the Starsky to my Hutch." Carmelita wanted to smile a little at his comparisons, but the mood made her somber and silent.

"I feel this connection with you…its unexplainable. You mean the world to me, Carmelita. Never in my wildest dreams did I think….think that I'd come across a creature as perfect as you; let alone be this creature's partner. That night," Dorian said, finding his voice as he built up courage to continue with his alcohol induced confession. "The night I you and I went out…I never thought I'd have the immense pleasure of taking…heaven personified out to dinner and dancing…fine wine…even a kiss. That kiss warmed me to the core; exciting every fiber of my being…I never felt so alive after that kiss!"

The feline stood up and moved to the door, plopping down on the other side; his back against the cool wood paneling. "You, Carmelita Montoya Fox became my angel. Strong, fierce, passionate, spicy…yet…warm, comforting…even delicate in every delicious way a woman should be." Dorian laughed slightly, his head moving with his body, "Besides…you aren't afraid to sock me when I'm doing something stupid." He lifted back his jacket and pulled the badge from his waistband and stared at it, running his fingers over the cool metal representing the iron grip of the law.

"And you're the perfect officer. I'm…not. I make mistakes…you don't." He shook his head and changed the subject. "All my life I've been searching for someone special…and I found you. Over the past few months these feelings I've had for you have intensified."

The feline laughed once more. "You know what? My mother told me that if I ever fell in love that I'd know for sure…that with that feeling…if I perused…my love would be right as rain. And I don't know this feeling….but if this isn't love, then I don't know what love is." Carmelita, throughout the ocelot's entire drunken confession, found it hard to swallow; tears stinging her eyes as the scope of Dorian's confession sunk into her mind.

He was head over heels in love with her…and nothing would ever make him feel differently. The vixen closed her eyes and listened to the feline as he continued his rant. "This past month you've done nothing but ignore me…and I don't blame you…I'd ignore me if I could. But if there are a few things that I know they're that I love you…and I'm so sorry for any pain I've caused you…so please…_please_…forgive me. Or don't…I really don't care…but the silence is killing me…I can't take your silence. So please…_please say something_...please."

Minutes passed…an eerie silence that chilled Dorian to the core. Despite the pain and relief coursing through his system, the alcohol made itself known, putting a damper on the feline's motor functions. He fell asleep against the door with the woman he loved on the other side…and he never got an answer.

* * *

_Author's note: I never think of anything good to say when I write these things. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that last section of this chapter. Give me no credit for it however because it was all the work of my infamous beta, IgnorantOne. He deserves your praise, not I. We are both diligently working on the future installments of this story, coming up with ideas, batting them back and forth to make this story better and better for you, the readers. Well...yeah, believe it or not, I suck at writing speeches. We hope you enjoyed this chapter, yadda yadda yadda. Read, review, discuss, comment, insult, do what you will. And thanks in advance for your kind reviews.  
_

Tex


	16. Going to Happen

**Chapter 16**

**Going to Happen  
**

* * *

_Author's note: Whoa, chapter sixteen already? Geeze, feels like yesterday I was just screwing around on the keyboard, coming up with this crazy idea for a Sly Cooper fanfic and uploading the first chapter. Looking back, I can see how far the story has come and it really surprised me. Never thought it would be this good, me having no clue what the plot would really be about until halfway through the third chapter. Funny how things happen like that, huh? (Of course I can't deny the great help and contributions from my beta.) _

_Anyway, hope you all enjoy reading chapter 16. Give your thanks not only to me, but of course my beta, IgnorantOne for writing out most (if not, all) the third section. Well...yeah. R&R._

Tex

* * *

Sly clutched his cap as he sprinted down the sidewalk, a red paw wrapped around his. Leading Scarlet down a hallway of brick walls and garbage cans, he stopped for a moment as a speeding car sloshed through the heavy rain water. Scarlet stumbled into Sly as he suddenly halted, her eyes covered by a thick blindfold. "This would be so much easier if you just let me have my sight," she panted from all the running. Placing her paws on his shoulders in order to stabilize herself, Sly glanced behind him and gave a light smirk.

"Yeah, and let you know where I sleep at night? Very funny, but I'm not giving you a free pass to come and stab me in my sleep whenever you'd like. This is just a temporary cease fire between us after all." Leaning out of the alley, he spotted no prying eyes as he took a breath of the crisp, moist air and sprinted down the street, Scarlet giving a grunt as her arm was tugged. The vixen reached into her purse as she ran with the raccoon, fishing around in the red bag in her temporary state of blindness.

"Wait, my pills," she inquired. "I need to take my pills."

"What, now," Sly came to a screeching halt, the soles of his boots sliding against slick cement. "But we're almost there." After a moment of Scarlet thrashing around in her purse, Sly snatched the handbag from her and began looking for the wayward bottle himself.

"It's in the white bottle with the blue label. Do you see it?" Her ears twitched as Sly jiggled the pills inside the bottle held in his paw. Popping the cap open, he poured two chalky white tablets into his palm, shielding them from the rain with the back of his other paw.

"Here. As for water to swallow them with...I guess you could always just look up." Scarlet felt the pills being pushed into her fingers and she eagerly tossed them back into her mouth. Gulping them down, she sighed and returned her paw into Sly's.

"Ready," she giggled. "So where is it you're whisking me away to, maybe a nice quiet little place for just the two of us to enjoy each other?"

"Not exactly..." Another jerk and Scarlet sprinted with Sly down the damp streets, stopping whenever a car sped by or one of the unlucky pedestrians who were caught in the rain crept by. After a few more blocks, the pair stood in the shadowed corners behind a garbage dumpster in a graffiti riddled alley. Clamping his jaws onto the wooden pole of his cane, the raccoon guided Scarlet onto his back as she wrapped her arms around him. "Hold on tight," he spoke through gritting teeth.

Scarlet smiled and squeezed tight, enjoying the proximity of one another's body. Sly began scaling the wall, slowly but surly reaching up and pulling himself farther up; the vixen strapped to his back. The fox lifted her legs and placed them onto the wall, helping with the raccoon's assent as she helped push off with the tips of her toes. As they finally made it to the top, Sly inhaled a deep sigh to regain his breath. Grabbing the vixen by the waist, he hopped onto a clothesline and slid across the rope towards the other side of the city.

Leaping off in mid slide, he sailed through the air, landing firmly on the roof of his residence. Unlatching the skylight, he helped the vixen down the square hole in his roof. Scarlet pulled off the blindfold as Sly slipped into his home, pulling the glass door of the skylight closed with the hook of his cane. "Wow," he heard the fox lightly gasp.

"It's not the best place, but it is home." Sly un-strapped his boots, placing them by the door as he took his hat from his head and headed for the kitchen, twisting the blue piece of cloth and ringing out any moisture as he held it over the sink. Scarlet looked towards him and gently smiled.

"It's perfect. Care to show me the bedroom?"

"You don't know when to quit do you?" The raccoon's bare feet slapped against the tiled floor of the kitchen until they hit the warm, fluffy dark carpeting. Scarlet glanced around for a moment, simply drinking in the sights.

"You don't have many lights in here. The furniture and carpet's a dark color too."

"It's because I'm naturally nocturnal," her ears twitched to his voice as it came from the other room. Scarlet tip toed into the next room to see him placing blankets and a pillow on the couch. He lined the cushion with sheets so it would be more comfortable to lie on. He glanced back to see her staring at him. "The dark colors are to help with my natural vision settings; my eyes are sensitive to bright lights, I'm better suited to seeing in darker areas."

"Ah, that explains the sunglasses." Sly nodded, turning back to finish with the couch.

"You can sleep here tonight." Scarlet's brows rose slightly as she stepped farther into the room towards the raccoon. Reaching up, she ran her fingers through the damp grey hair on his head.

"Can't I sleep with you tonight? It's going to be a cold night...might want some company." Sly shook any thought that began forming in his mind as he plucked the frolicking fingers from his hair.

"I'll tell you this once. You have the couch, I have the bed. If you come into my room for any other reason then using the bathroom, you'll be sleeping in the rain. Got me?" Scarlet's ears fell as she slid her paw from his. She flicked her tail at him as she turned and walked away. Sly shook his head, his eyes glued to her swaying hips and curvaceous rump as she went her way. What he was thinking, letting her stay here for the night was beyond him.

Fortunately, he felt confident in his own willpower as he was able to evade every one of her advances so far. Hopefully he would be able to keep it up. This however was far from his mind then the fact that he might wake up to a knife poking out of his chest. She promised no attempt on his life, not for this night anyway. But remembering the night of their meeting, she was quite the manipulative and lying murderess.

* * *

The rain slapped against glass as each individual drop slid down the smooth window's face. An impenetrable wall of clouds blocked the comforting glow of the moon, casting many of the streets in glossy, damp darkness. Sly turned on his side, emitting a quiet groan as he sighed, his relaxed breathing continuing. The flash of lightning, followed by the muffled explosion of thunder caused the raccoon's eyes to open slightly. He sighed in annoyance as his sleep was disturbed.

Turning to lay on his back, he tiled his head to look out the window as the sky's tears rolled off the transparent glass barrier. A soft creak of the floor boards caught his ear's attention as they erected themselves, slowly moving around to pick up the origins of the noise. The bedroom door slowly opened, causing Sly to sit up in bed as he watched the door being pushed ajar. A familiar scent wafted to his nose as a blazing red vixen stepped through the open door. Sly flopped back onto the bed as he caught a glimpse of Scarlet.

She was dressed in one of his t-shirts, her left shoulder exposed from the neck hole. The vixen smiled and walked past the bed and into the bathroom. After a moment, she walked out after flicking off the light. Sly kept his ears locked onto her movements as he anticipated the sound of his bedroom door shutting on her way out. Hearing as the sound didn't come; he sat back up to see her chin resting on the mattress, right next to where he was laying.

Sly pushed his lips together and slowly raised a paw to the door. Scarlet's smile disappeared as she rose from the floor and crawled onto the bed. The raccoon nervously clutched the blankets and pulled them farther up to his mid section. Sitting on her knees, she sat there and watched him for a moment. "I let you stay the night; I gave you the couch and something to sleep in. You know I'm not going to sleep with you, so what more do you want from me?"

Sly's words caused Scarlet's ears to flatten. A soft frown marred her face as she moved in a little closer to him. He leaned back a little as he became more and more uncomfortable with her body's close proximity. "I'm not used to sleeping alone," she whispered like a child that just woke up from a nightmare. "Mind if I join you?"

"Actually I do," Sly stated. Another flash of lightning and the rumble of thunder caused all the fur on Scarlet's body to stand on end. She huddled closer to Sly whose face contorted to a grimace as he felt Scarlet wrap her arms around his torso. For a cold blooded murderess, she was quite timid when faced with trivial things such as thunder and lightening.

"I hate the lightning...it brings back...bad memories." Sly would have rolled his eyes to the obvious ploy, but he detected no fault in her voice. Worming his way out of her embrace, he pointed for the door once more. She got off the bed and watched as he crawled back under the blankets. Looking back at the door, she thought for a moment with a finger to her chin.

A grin spread across her face as she walked out the room. Hearing the door open once more, Sly let a hiss of air escape his nostrils. His nose tingled to a comforting aroma, causing the black tip to twitch along with the short whiskers on the side of his muzzle. The citrus, fragrant smell was accompanied by an equally soft, comforting voice. "Sly," Scarlet softly stated.

Sly sat up again slowly, seeing the vixen bathed in golden light as she clutched a few candles in her paws. _Well, that explains the smells_, Cooper thought. Placing the candles by the bedside table, Scarlet stood by the end of the bed as she turned her back towards the raccoon. Sly's eyes grew large as he watched Scarlet cross her arms and clutch the sides of her night shirt. Slowly pulling up, the vixen removed the shirt, slowly exposing the elegant curves of her bare back to the raccoon.

As she slowly wiggled her body out of the shirt, she turned around. Sly gulped as Scarlet climbed onto the edge of the bed and seductively crawled on all fours towards him, her breasts lightly swaying with each movement. Her red, fluffy tail slowly wagged behind her, the small pink tip of her tongue moistened her lips as it slid around the edge. Sly pressed his back against the wall the bed was shoved up against as Scarlet crawled up closer to him. His paws twitched nervously, resisting reaching for the perfect specimen that clearly wanted him.

Scarlet crawled onto his body and leaned her face forward, her eyes being the only thing that the raccoon could see. The glowing green irises were made of liquid beauty as he drank in every little detail of her. Every little etched line, every little swirling coil of green. Sly soon found his eyelids to lazily drop, his sight trapped by these pairs of emeralds. "Sly," she whispered.

She leaned her head closer to him as did he, no longer able to control his actions. Their lips ached for each other's being pressed against them. Sly's lower lip quivered as the inside of his mouth became suddenly dry. Their lips so close they could feel the heat from them; he suddenly caught himself and quickly drew back. Scarlet awkwardly stumbled forward, thinking she would land against soft lips, but kissing only open air.

Her eyes fluttered open, her lids still lazily dropped. She watched as Sly quickly drew in a breath. He shook his head, the vixen's lip quivering as she didn't get the kiss she was so looking forward to. Sly found himself surprised as he noticed Scarlet's eyes beginning to shine and glisten with moisture. Did she just want him for a nice little one night stand, or did she really love him this deeply?

Not wanting to send her to bed in tears, he brought a paw to her face and held it there for a moment, giving a light smile. She blinked, clearing her vision of the moisture as a tear rolled off her cheek. She smiled in return and sat on the edge of the bed. Sly let the breath out of his lungs and lay back down on the mattress. He went stiff as he felt another body press against his, a leg wrapping around him.

A pair of arms coiled around his torso as legs wrapped around the lower areas. Scarlet giggled as she buried her face into the back of his neck and inhaled deeply. "You're not going to get me off, so you might as well enjoy the company." Sly sighed as he turned to rest on his back, Scarlet loosening her grip, only from her to clamp onto him again. She moved her muzzle into his neck as a pair of powerful jaws clamped down on the raccoon's neck.

Sly cringed to the powerful, yet non-painful bite as she clamped onto him, feeling her bare breasts pressed against his back. She removed her mouth from his neck and nuzzled it instead, sniffing the fur and rubbing the side of her muzzle in the thick, lush grey forest. Sly couldn't help but feel comforted by this, finding that his eyes grew tired and slowly drifted off to sleep. "You're not getting in my pants," Sly rolled off his tongue with whatever amount of consciousness he had left.

"No," Scarlet whispered, "But you also said that you're not going to _sleep_ with me, and just look where we are now. You're a wonderful man, Sly Cooper…and right now, there is no one else in the world I'd rather spend my nights with…"

* * *

"_Sly…" Sly Cooper couldn't help but stir at the seductive, sultry voice slowly creeping into his ears, "Sly…" The second saying of his name sent shivers up and down his spine when he felt hot breath caressing his ear. "Honey…wake up."_

_As the gears in his mind started turning, his sense of smell started to kick in, but his droopy eyes refused to open. A pungent, delicious odor filled his nostrils when the raccoon felt silky smooth fur brush against the coal black tip of his muzzle; the thief inhaling deeply when he heard a soft giggle come from the feminine voice. "Cooper you rascal, we're barely even together and you're already attacking me with that nose of yours!"_

_Sly just hummed in approval of the fur's softness and rubbed his muzzle from side to side, puzzling slightly when he heard the woman let out a soft moan; two paws coming up to caress his cheeks and scratch the area behind his ears. "Sly…you're too good at that for your own good…"_

_His ear twitched when he heard that, and he opened up his mouth a little bit to speak, but when he exhaled her paws pushed his muzzle back into her fur. "Cooper…" Sly wanted to arch an eyebrow, but his face refused to cooperate, so he settled for pulling his lips back and running his teeth from side to side; drawing another moan from the female who lay beside him. The woman ran her paws up and down his back, claws sifting through his dark grey fur and her fingertips tracing the every outline of his muscles._

_It took nearly a minute more of the woman's soft moans for his mind to finally start working, and his eyes started to open; sleep sand forcing his paws to leave the underside of the pillow that was cradling his head to wipe the morning grim away. With the goo removed from his eyelids, he was able to open them without problems, but his vision was still blurry; all he could see was fluffy white. "Mphhmhrmph?" He murmured, his tone confused, but his muzzle full of fluffy fur; his vocalization drew another soft moan._

_When the woman moaned, his vision cleared…and Sly found out why she was moaning. His muzzle was buried underneath the curve of her right breast. A small grin graced his lips when a pert, pink nipple was level with his eyes, and he moved his muzzle up a little bit and wrapped his lips around the sensitive bud and sucked softly; running his tongue up and down the sensitive flesh. Running the sides of his muzzle against the soft lofty mounds, his grin widened as he heard her panting grow in volume, her chest heaving with each sigh of arousal. The cold black tip caused her to shiver as the icy sensation crept across the skin under her fur, enjoying every moment; the thief's grin widened even more when her claws dug slightly into his scalp, a sweet cry escaping from her muzzle._

_Sly left his muzzle attached for a few more seconds before he shifted his head to the left and found her other nipple amid the soft, snowy fur; bringing his cold nose to rub around it a few times until he took the pink flesh into his mouth. Another breathy moan gracing his ears as her claws stroked through his short grey head fur, and his grin spreading to both sides of his mouth._

_With a disappointed sigh from the woman, he disengaged himself from her buoyant breasts and nuzzled her generous cleavage before resting his head back on the pillow; his grin being replaced with a satisfied smirk, his eyes closing. "What a way to wake up…Carmelita…"_

_He heard the chuckled issue from the woman's throat, "Carmelita? Are you still dreaming of that fox? She's with Dorian…and you're with me my dear."_

_This certainly got Sly's attention, and his head shot up and took a look above the vixen's bountiful white furred breasts and took a look at her face; the Master Thief's chocolate irises locked with Scarlet's enchanting green ones. Sly tried to shy back, but the exotic vixen wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a deep kiss, their lips melding together and tongues dueling with a passionate ferocity; the raccoon surprised to find that his body was moving on its own accord, his paws now moving to gently caress the curved undersides of her voluptuous breasts._

_Both parties moaned into the kiss and their bodies arched into one another, Sly's paws sliding away from her breasts and down to grip her bottom, giving the firm flesh a playful squeeze when her paws gently tugged on his hair. He growled low in his throat when her breasts pressed against the firm muscles in his chest and when her hips pressed against his; the intimate contact sending a flare of pleasure up both their spines._

_It was so strange for Sly…it was like an out of body experience…except he was still in his body…it was like he wasn't in control of himself; but it really didn't matter to him as wave after wave of intense heat spread throughout his body wherever the vixen touched. The raccoon was the first one to break the kiss and he used his nose to push her chin up to he could nip and lick at her soft and sensitive neck; the enraptured vulpine giving Sly a low but pleasured growl of her own._

_The pair lay there for a few minutes, their bodies steadily getting more entwined as the seconds passed, the heat between them growing until Sly found his arousal pressing against her hip; Scarlet grinned and ground her hips against him; pleased when the raccoon let out gravely growl. "God, Scarlet…" The thief bit her jugular lightly and ground back against her, "Turn around…"_ _It was so weird for Sly to listen to his voice come out from his own mouth, but not in his words, It felt like he was a prisoner in his own body…but just like before, the sensations overruled any thought that would have been forming in his mind as he rolled the vixen around; pressing against her. The two moaned in pleasure at the sensations, and the thief rolled his hips, rumbling like an earthquake. _

"_God…" He groaned, the warmth radiating from her core sending chills up and down his spine as well as the fox's._

"_Sly…you've never been this gung-ho before…I like it." Scarlet moaned, her paws coming back over her head to rub through his hair, brushing her backside against him, a small grin coming to her muzzle as she rolled her hips in time with his. Sly couldn't believe this was happening, but the pleasure coursing through his body with each roll of his hips distracted any thoughts that wanted to form. His mind solely focused on attaining the peak of pleasure._ _The grinding began to pick up the pace as both Sly and Scarlet wanted to finish, but the real pleasure began when Scarlet bent over at the waist and raised her tail._

_Soon the fire located within Sly's loins burned, and with the way Scarlet moaned, he could tell she was getting close as well, so he sped up his pace; hips moving quickly against her._ _It was only a few seconds later when he heard Scarlet give out a low yip, "Sly…"_ _Her cry spurred him onwards, staving off his eventual orgasm as long as he could in order to make sure that the beautiful vixen came first, "Sly…" He heard her moan again._

"_SLY!"_

* * *

"Sly!"

Sly Cooper's eyes opened up in a flash, and he stiffened considerably when a powerful scent that could only belong to sex shot up his nose. He pulled away and fell off of the bed, taking the sheets with him. When he stood back up, he found Scarlet completely naked, her panties discarded at the foot of the large bed. Her leg and tail arched up and her chest heaving, body shivering as she looked back at him, her muzzle open and eyes heavily lidded. "God, Sly Cooper…."

The raccoon looked down and realized that the space in his boxers had become valuable real estate, and there was a sizeable tent to prove it. "I was…I was dreaming…" he murmured, a sigh of relief escaping his muzzle as he looked up at her, and then turning his head away when he noticed that he had an amazing view of her; the heavenly scent wafting from her and slithering up his nose.

"Dreaming?" The vixen questioned as she rolled onto all fours and crawled to the edge of the bed, her breasts swinging from side to side. The raccoon's eyes were drawn to it like a cat drawn to a string of yarn. He blushed and turned away, "Dreaming? First you play hard to get, and _now_ you tease me? After you told me to go away? I can't tell if you are the cruelest man I've met or the most fun to peruse…you're a paradox Mr. Cooper. But if you would, I'd like to continue where we left off…except with penetration this time."

Sly shook his head and blushed, rushing towards the bathroom and grabbing a towel as he walked past the dresser. Quickly closing the door behind him, he leaned against the cold, hard wood and slid down the surface. As he landed on the floor, he steadied his beating heart as he glanced up and looked through the small keyhole near the door knob. He saw as Scarlet pushed off the bed and stretched, her arms reaching towards the sky. Staring back at the tiled floor, he ran a paw through his hair as air hissed through his nostrils.

"Keep your wits about you, Cooper," he breathed to himself. "Don't do something you'll regret. You're not even safe in your sleep." He felt disgusted with himself, like his body was caked with mud, even though it was caked with something that definitely wasn't moist earth. Shivering, he stood up and slid out of his undergarments, pulling back the curtains of the shower stall and eagerly entered.

As the warm water burst forth from the nozzle, he craned back his head to feel the jets of water slapping against his neck. A soft click to his left caused his eyes to shoot open as his irises moved toward the noise. The doorknob turned and in came none other then Satan's mistress herself. "Mind if I join you?" Persistent little thing, isn't she?

"As a matter of fact..." The vixen crawled into the stall as he was in mid sentence. Sly remained still, chiseled from stone as his eyes followed the fox. She slowly circled around him in the spacious shower room, finding every inch of him to her liking. Smirking, she rested a paw on his rippling stomach, sliding it slowly down his abdominals.

The raccoon quickly clutched her wrist as she continued her route south. Raising her paw above her shoulder, he sighed and blinked hard as warm water continued to splash into his eyes. Scarlet kept the smirk painted on her face as she quickly leaned forward, extending her tongue to lap at his face. He tried to focus on her face, every inch of his willpower fighting the urge to grab and press her against the wall. As if anticipating his own thoughts, she slid out of his grasp and pressed her paws against his shoulders.

Slamming him against the wall, she crossed her thigh over his and pressed her lips against his. Keeping his mouth closed, he felt her tongue painting his lips, begging for entry. She rubbed her leg against his, slowly moving up and down. Sly took his paw and pressed two fingers on an area of the vixen's neck, causing her to flinch and let him go. He then grasped both her paws and turned her around, holding her arms behind her, her wiggling and thrashing causing him to squeeze tight to her surprising strength.

She gave up and instead tried another trick that she knew would work. Wrapping her bushy red tail around his leg, the white tip tickled at the inside of his thigh as she pressed her back against him and craned her head, looking up at him as she licked her lips. Sly couldn't help but get caught in her eyes yet again, feeling helpless and weak as his knees became jello. Leaning down, he clamped his jaws on her neck and gently nipped and nibbled at her fur. She squeaked and moaned to the sensation of every bite, feeling the grip on her arms loosening; sliding out of his paws so that she could reach up and coil her arm around his neck.

Feeling the sting of reality, Sly pulled his mouth away from her and shook his head, pressing himself against the wall. Scarlet perused him as she pressed her body against his and slid a paw up the side of his face. "Still think that woman's worth holding out for?" Sly didn't answer her; it was just what she wanted. He didn't play into her tricks of starting a debate with her, she would simply try to twist everything around and make it seem like Carmelita was the wicked succubus instead of the temptress whose body was pressed against his chest.

"She can't give you a fraction of what I can make you experience," she said as she buried her face into his chest. "All you have to do is take this into your own paws. I won't stop you." The offer was like a gift from God. Only a fool would say no, only a corpse would not make a move. Sly just so happened to be that corpse of a fool.

Taking her paws, he turned her around and slowly, painfully, led her out of the shower. Scarlet was stunned, her eyes growing so wide she thought they would roll out of her skull. She wrapped her arms around herself as she shivered to the sudden drop in temperature after leaving the warm shower stall to stand in the cold bathroom. "Do I at least get a towel?" She faked a whimper and made her voice sound genuinely hurt.

A grey paw emerged from the plastic curtain of the shower and pointed a finger towards a pale blue towel that rested on the sink. Scarlet huffed and wrapped it around herself. Pouting, she stepped out of the bathroom, coils of steam trailing behind her. Sly sighed and slid down the wall of the shower in relief as she left, another moment and he probably would have lost himself in her. He couldn't keep doing this.

Resisting her when she at least had some of her clothing on was one thing, seeing her entire body bare in front of him was something else entirely. He needed to think of something fast, not knowing how far it truly went while he was sleeping, another of her advances and she would probably have what she so desperately desired.

* * *

"I should have just given you a cell phone." The receiver end of the telephone carried the thick voice and into Tom's ear. The jackal tapped on the glass wall as he leaned forward, the phone pressed against the side of his head.

"Listen boss, Luscious has been keeping an eye on our 'friends'. He reported to me just yesterday that Scarlet and Blue have split up. I've been having trouble tracking either of them since the rainstorm; it's as if they completely disappeared." The jackal paused for a moment, looking at his own reflection in the glossy silver surface of the phone box.

"You have your orders, just keep Fox alive and well."

"But sir, you don't understand. It has been a month since they last appeared, and with how Constable Booker has been acting lately, I am getting rather worried that they are planning an attack anytime now while Booker's in this stage of emotional devastation. People are going to die unless we do something!" He paused again as he glanced to his right to see a white feline staring at him with a puzzled look on her whiskered face. Tom realized he shouted out loud his last statement and nervously smiled at the cat.

The feline slowly walked away after breaking eye contact, Tom's gaze following her until she was out of sight. Cupping his palm over the phone's speaker, he spoke into it again in a more hushed tone. "I need some assistance. I can feel like something wrong is going to happen. It is only a matter of time, sir."

"As I said to you before, thirty-three, you are on your own." Tom hung his head and let out a sigh, running a paw through his hair.

"It's Tom, sir..."

"I wish there was more I could do, but your assignment isn't the only thing going on in this wide world of ours. The Russian division has their paws full, things are at breaking point in China, and we still have need for 'unknown presence' in North Korea. We are swamped...better yet, I'm swamped."

"You seemed pretty confident in that cute little receptionist you hired a few days ago, sir." There was the guttural noise of someone clearing their throat in nervousness as Tom rolled his eyes. "Fine, boss, I'll continue to keep both eyes on Miss Fox. But if something does happen, remember that you denied me any support." The jackal slapped the telephone back onto the hook and stepped outside of the booth.

Looking up towards the sky, he placed both paws on his cheeks and let them slowly slide off the sides of his face. He groaned and rubbed his eyes, feeling the early morning sun beat down on him as it slowly rose into the sky. "I should have stayed in the Royal Navy like my father wanted. But no, I just had to be the best and catch everyone's attention." He reached for the flask in his back pocket and unscrewed the cap, bringing the silver container up to his lips.

"_You keep drinking that and you'll rot the teeth right out of your mouth, hon."_ Tom paused as the cold metal just barely touched his lips. He glanced forward towards the source of the voice; the sight nearly froze his blood white. The ghostly female jackal stood in front of him, her paws on her hips and a concerned look on her face. _"I know you've had a rough day, dear. But there are more healthy ways to relieve the stress then that. I don't want to have to carry you up to bed again. Better yet, why don't you carry me instead?" _

Tom slowly pulled back the flask and looked at the transparent body of the woman standing in front of him. He glanced at her, then at the flask in his paw. He arched an eyebrow and slowly shook his head as he poured the amber liquid out of the silvery container and onto the sidewalk. His arms hung at his sides as he stared at what he assumed was a hallucination of his wife. Tilting his head, he pulled back the corner of his lip in puzzlement. The female gave a soft smile as she furrowed her brows in worry.

"_It'll all work out soon enough, hon, just have faith, alright?" _Tom looked down at the woman's paw as she offered her open palm to him. He glanced up at her, then back to the paw and slowly reached towards it. Like his last experience, he felt a deathly chill run up his spine as his paw passed through the woman's, the palm dissolving into a silvery mist until it disappeared altogether.

"Oh, well isn't this a grand cup of tea," Tom sighed. "You've gone looney, Tom. You're seeing things." Slowly turning his head back, he noticed a small group of people staring at him, many backing away a few steps as he turned his head. "And you're talking to yourself..." Pushing through the crowd, he shoved his paws into his coat and stormed away, still feeling the eyes of others burning a hole in the back of his head. "And what the bloody hell is so fascinating!?" His shout carried over to the ears and they prying eyes as everyone quickly turned and went their merry way.

Looking up, he noticed the sun had disappeared into the clouds that remained in the sky since late last night. Smelling the moisture in the air of the rainstorm, he gritted his teeth and rubbed his temples. "Every cloud has a silver lining...what a complete load of rubbish." A car sped by, splashing a wave of rainwater to flow right towards the jackal. He anticipated this as he casually stepped aside, the dirty water splashing on the sidewalk just a few feet from him.

He glanced up from the floor and looked towards the yellow cab that nearly showered him with brown gutter water. Bringing his brows together in a glare, he straightened the collar of his coat and continued forward. The jackal stumbled as he turned around and walked right into another person going the opposite direction. He landed on cement with a grunt, then saw that on one else fell with him. Pushing off the floor, he looked to see that no one was there.

Shaking his head, he balanced on one knee as he looked around for any trace of the other person. The streets were empty except for him. That icy chill ran up his back again as he slowly looked behind himself.

The same white furred weasel that he saw nearly a month ago stood looking down at him, that bone chilling smile creeping across his face. He pushed up his glasses from the brim of his nose towards his eyes. The man was white as snow, the clothing matching the color of his fur. He pulled his lips back to reveal his teeth as coils of smoke slithered through the small gaps of his fangs. Tom immediately stood up and blinked a few times. _"Hello, Tom," _the rodent said as wisps of smoke bellowed from his mouth with every spoken word.

"Hello...figment of my imagination." Tom couldn't take another moment of this. Why should he take anything seriously if he can't even believe his own eyes? "So, I'm seeing ghosts now? And why do I get the feeling you are behind this sudden cross between life and after life I'm experiencing?"

"_You always were a sharp one, Tom. Yes...a sharp one." _Tom glanced over his shoulder and chuckled as he began walking away.

"Yes well, you always were...um...right. Well, I'll see you another time then. Good day."

"_She misses you," _the weasel slid off his tongue. The words caused Tom to pause in mid step. Keeping his back to the rodent, his paws balled into fists and lightly shook.

"Run that by me again, would you?"

"_Annabelle dearly misses you. It is quite heart breaking...that is if I had a heart to break. Such sorrow she felt after leaving you...it wasn't in her power to stay with you. If only that gunman didn't hold up that particular gas station."_

"Enough, who exactly are you and why do you always pop up in the damnedest places?" Tom jabbed a finger in the rodent's direction, his eyes beginning to grow puffy from stifled tears, memories of his wife running through his mind. The white animal chuckled as he pushed his glasses back up his nose.

"_Oh I'm not important...not to you anyway. No, my purpose is with another individual. She is quite close though from here. Yes...quite close." _Tom quickly pulled out a Glock 18 from the confines of his coat and pointed the barrel at the weasel's forehead.

"By 'she' you mean a certain Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox? I'm terribly sorry and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm afraid I can't let anyone get close to her. Not anyone I'm not familiar with at least. Sorry chap."

"_You truly are a sharp one, that is exactly who I am seeking at the moment. I'm sorry to say, you cannot do anything to halt me from her. I'm afraid you will have to step aside." _

"Are you one of the Colonel's assassins? Are you here to kill her?" Clicking back the hammer of his machine pistol, the weasel parted his lips and lazily blinked his eyes.

"_There is no need for a gun. Such barbaric devices are beneath me. I'm sorry, but you must step aside while I perform my duties." _

"The bloody hell I will." Tom pulled back the trigger as a bullet exploded from the chamber. The round passed through the weasel's skull, leaving a small hole right through the rodent's forehead. Tom waited for the animal to fall dead on the floor, yet the snow white man continued to stand. The small hole in his forehead closed as quickly as the bullet passed through his head, appearing as if the man was composed from smoke.

"_Now was that truly necessary?" _The rodent sighed as he walked right through Tom's body, melting into a cloud of smoke before forming back into a solid body. _"You cannot stop me," _he chided. _"Just sit and watch, I'll be done with Miss Fox soon enough for you to have her back under your watch. Until then...just have faith." _

Tom watched the animal depart, the farther the white clad man walked, the more he faded and faded until he completely disappeared from sight. An unnatural mist flowed onto the streets as Tom stuffed his paws into his pockets, shivering from the sudden cold. "I knew something bad was going to happen."

* * *

_BUM BUM BUM!!...sorry._

Tex


	17. A nice Little Trinket

**Chapter 17**

**A nice Little Trinket**

* * *

**T**he sun was slowly setting, sinking behind the horizon as colors of orange and yellow and purple burst into the sky like an explosion of a painter's canvas. Carmelita drew in breaths as she continued jogging down the sidewalk, thankful for the sudden cold weather. Without the comforting breeze, she would have been sweating buckets by now. The vixen slowed at a cross-walk and started to regain her breath, placing a few fingers on her wrist to feel her pulse. With what moisture that clung to her forehead, it was quickly wiped away by the back of her paw as the signal for her to cross lit up the little black box across from her.

Glancing around, she couldn't help but notice the great Eiffel Tower in the distance, looming over the rest of the city. She recalled a story on the news, being an off duty officer, she wanted to at least stay informed. A story told her there were sightings of vandals near the tower. Most likely they were just scum, some young idiot deciding to leave their mark on the structure from a spray can. Odds are they wouldn't be much of a threat, not for someone like Carmelita.

She slowed her pace to a walk as she continued to stare at the tower, stepping down the sidewalk. Running a paw through her hair, she glanced at the watch around her wrist and decided to head for the tower and see these vandals for herself. She wasn't in much of a hurry to get back to her apartment as it were anyway. Going down a turn in the sidewalk, she headed for the landmark, the sun continuing to slowly drift down like a falling leaf. It was beginning to grow steadily colder the farther she walked, causing her to stuff her paws into the pockets of her jeans and zip up her jacket.

It wasn't until she noticed that coils of mist poured from her nostrils did she stop. "Funny, the news report didn't say anything about the temperature cooling down _this_ far." She murmured and blew out a gentle breath and watched as the condensation floated upwards and disappeared. Arching an eyebrow, she saw not a living soul nearby on the sidewalk except for her. Her brows came together in a furrow as she tugged on her jacket, warding off the chilling wind.

Glancing around, she spun quickly back as she glimpsed a shape from out of the corner of her eye. Hearing footsteps, she saw a skinny, lanky animal dressed in white from head to toe as he walked down the opposite side of the street from the vixen. His fur matched seamlessly with his bright clothing. Something was odd about that man, suddenly appearing out of thin air just as Carmelita turned around. Her heart skipped a beat as she glanced farther down towards the man's feet.

He was floating three inches off the ground from where he stood, yet he continued walking as if stepping on solid ground. The fox rubbed her eyes a moment and found the man had disappeared completely from sight. Blinking, she sighed and parted her lips. "Just my imagination..." she sighed, patting her chest to calm her heartbeat. She turned on her heel as the scraping of her boot sole made her ears twitch.

She stopped dead in her tracks, frozen. Another figure that she did not notice was standing by her, leaning up against a lamp post, staring down the sidewalk. She noticed by his tail that he was in fact an ashy grey wolf; the tips of his ears were blackened like charcoal. "Who...?" she spoke, causing the wolf's ears to perk up and he slowly turned around. Her heart nearly jumped out of her throat as his face was fully revealed to her.

Stanford Hesson, the same man who she had spent half her police training years with stood before her, leaning against the doused lamp post and a grin spreading across his face. _"C'mon, Carmelita, they moved the freshmen dorm rooms to this building." _The vixen furrowed her brows in puzzlement to the wolf's words as she took a small step back. He smirked and gave the fox a wink as he dissolved into a wisp of smoke, being scattered and blown away by a passing breeze. She stood motionless, feeling a chill crawl up her back as every strand of fur bristled on her body.

Feeling a pair of paws press on her shoulders, she quickly spun around, her fists raised and clenched. Seeing no one nearby, she shook her head and barred her teeth to the unexplainable phenomenon. An icy mist crept across the deserted road and sidewalk, tendrils of the silvery smoke coiling around her ankles. Her eyes shrank to pinholes, having no desire to stay here any longer. Pressing her head down, she faced forward and steadily walked past the mist enshrouded area.

Still seeing the tower through the veil of mist, Fox pressed her painted lips together and shoved her paws deeper into her pockets. As the vixen departed, a lone figure seemed to appear from the thick layer of fog, the mist parting like the Red Sea as he walked through the curtain of smoke. The weasel slowly shook his head, pushing up his glasses with a finger. Blinking his bottomless, pearly white irises, his permanent smirk was still chiseled on his lips. _"The pursuit of a lifetime...the afterlife time that is. My unblinking eyes are watching you, Inspector Fox."_

* * *

The elevator dinged as it reached the top floor of the tower. The silver doors opened, revealing a grey furred raccoon whose left arm was enveloped by a pair of blazing red paws that belonged to a heart stopping beauty of a woman. Sly and Scarlet stepped towards the guard railing, feeling the wind rushing against their bodies at the dizzying height from which they stood. "This is wonderful," the vixen to Sly's left swooned. He felt her grip on his arm tighten as a rush of air slammed against their bodies.

"I've never seen a Parisian sunset before. I hear it's quite divine." Sly wasn't much for fanciful and elegant wording. He just considered the sunset a blessing, something worth sharing with another person. Scarlet glanced up at Cooper before lightly grinning, letting her legs relax as she feigned that she was about to fall. She gasped and let out a sigh of relief as Sly's lightning grace made him catch her in mid fall.

Lifting her back up, she placed her paws on his shoulders and smiled, her eyes lazily opened as if she were awe struck. "Even though I was faking it, you still caught me." Sly's brows rose to her honesty of confessing that the fall was staged. "Blue would have let me land on my tail. You really are quite the man, Sly Cooper. It's a shame there isn't a way that I could join your profession and steal you away..."

The raccoon grinned as he helped her back onto her feet. Though she was an enemy, and most likely the next time they were to meet she would be swinging a knife at him. He was quite enjoying himself. There weren't many people in this world Sly enjoyed spending his time with. Bentley, Murray, Carmelita, but that was all he really had.

Scarlet proved to be rather good company despite her obvious desires and wicked outlooks on life. The vixen pressed herself against the side of Sly's body as she clung to it, her eyes catching the glint of sunlight reflecting off of glass. Shifting her irises, she spotted what had to be the greatest thing she had ever seen. Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox, standing across the plaza as she surveyed the area with a pair of binoculars graced the murderess' vision. That famous wicked grin spread across her face as she noticed Carmelita sweep her gaze across the area before backtracking to plant her lenses on the pair at the top of the tower.

Scarlet didn't waste a second. "Oh Sly," she swooned, burying her face into the fur of the raccoon's neck. His entire body tensed for a moment before slowly wrapping an arm around the vixen and rubbing her arm for a moment. "Thanks for this; Indigo has never done anything like this for me. I'd just like to thank you for bringing me up here to the 'Tower of Love' as they call it. Quite fitting...don't you agree?"

Sly gave a wordless nod, staring forward and remaining that way as he stopped rubbing the vixen's arm with great disappointment. Scarlet sighed in comfort as she continued to hug against the raccoon's torso, cracking open an eye to see Carmelita Fox staring towards them for a moment before her tiny body quickly broke off in a sprint, heading toward the exit. The vixen's grin was from cheek to cheek; her eyes flashed venomous ivy green before burying her snout into Cooper's neck once more. "I should probably go now," she breathed into Sly's neck fur, causing that particular patch to grow warm from her breath. "Blue is probably on the verge of tearing the city apart looking for me. It was fun; I had a lovely time with you, Sly."

She slowly pushed off of him and looked up into his eyes. "Goodbye, Scarlet. Aside from a few things...I enjoyed spending time with you."

"Don't go changing on me; always stay that sweet man that you are. Bye...lover" She twirled her fingers at him as she gestured her departing. Sly waved, goodbye, rolling his eyes before turning back to face the sunset, his paws clasping the guard rails. Scarlet glanced at the raccoon once more before sprinting towards the elevator and clicking the button that would take her to street level. After the chime of the elevator, the doors slid open and she slipped outside.

Her sense of direction kicked in as her destination was displayed clearly in her mind. Jogging down the sidewalk, a few blocks down, she turned and came to a halt at a photography shop. Pushing open the door, the jingling of bells signaled the owner of a new customer. The badger put down his news paper and turned towards the vixen, placing both paws onto the counter. "Bonsior, bonsior," the badger exclaimed as he turned around.

He stopped and studied his new customer for a moment, coming to the conclusion that she didn't speak fluent French. "Good evening, miss." He said in English, a very thick French accent made it a bit of a challenge to discern what he was saying. Scarlet politely curtsied and gave off a light hearted giggle.

"Bonjour, parlez-vous anglais?" Scarlet spoke. The badger from behind the counter scratched his brow in slight surprise as he heard the vixen speak elegant French.

"Yes, I speak English very good, no?" His accent caused another giggle to erupt from the vixen as she stepped forward.

"Oui," she said. "I speak French too, thought I'm still learning."

"Well, may I help you, miss?"

"Yes, I was in town looking for a camera. I was hoping you would have a particular model I am interested in. A Polaroid camera, I've been having trouble finding one." The badger lifted a finger to gesture for the vixen to wait a moment as he scratched the fur under his hat and went into the back of the store. After a few moments of hearing the clerk mumbling and grumbling, hearing boxes shifting around, he finally emerged with a small box in his paws.

"You're in luck miss, I have here special camera that I'm sure you are looking for. It had been sitting in my inventory for quite long time now." He blew a few particles of dust off the cardboard and he lifted out the mint conditioned camera. Scarlet nearly swooned; the design was painted a blazing red. She couldn't have asked for a more perfect fit.

"Combien," she asked. Smirking as she reached into the confines of her purse. The badger scratched his chin as he lifted the box, searching for a price on the item. Shrugging after finding nothing, he placed the box back onto the counter and smiled.

"There is no price, I'm afraid..." he paused for a moment, not sure what to say to his customer. Scarlet's ears slowly dropped for a moment as she pressed her lips together. Seeing the clerk smile however caused her to arch an eyebrow. "I believe fifty would cover price, no?" Scarlet smiled as she reached into her purse again and pulled out fifty euros, sliding them onto the table.

The clerk opened the cash register and deposited the currency. Then, reaching under the table, he pulled out a roll of film and placed it into the camera. "Merci," Scarlet gasped. "Thank you so much, you've helped me a great deal." Her smile faded to that of a more sinister grin as she took the camera and inspected it. The badger grinned and waved as the vixen departed.

"Au revior!"

"Bonne nuit," she shouted back as she passed through the door. "Perfect," she chided. "Now the real fun will start. Let's see," she placed a finger to her chin as she glanced up at the sky. "Fox's apartment building should be..." She stopped as she noticed the street sign that she stood under. Turning to stare down the right turn of the sidewalk, she grinned. "Ah, there we are."

* * *

The door swung open and slammed against the wall as Carmelita Fox stormed into her apartment. The loud crash caused Dorian who was lying on the couch to nearly jump up onto the ceiling. Every muscle in his body tensed as he fell back on the couch, feeling like one big knotted stump. He watched the vixen close the door to her bedroom, her eyes noticeably blood shot and moist with crying. He wanted to knock on her door to find what was wrong and what caused her to be so upset, but he soon decided against it.

Feeling helpless and shameful, he resumed his position on the couch. Searching for the remote, he clicked on the television to a baseball game; the English subtitles kept grabbing his eye's attention and made it hard to focus on the display. He sighed, losing interest in the game as he sat forward and stared down at the floor. His ears perked up to the muffled sobs coming from the other room, it nearly broke his heart knowing that if he knew what was good for him, he would keep his mouth shut and his nose out of her business. _"And a nice hit from Donner, he's sprinting down to first..."_ The enthusiastic voice of the announcer seemed to echo in his ears.

The only real joy he heard in awhile. On the other side of the reinforced walls, Carmelita crashed onto her bed and buried her face into a pillow. The cloth grew damp with salty tears as her eyes burned like coals. She wanted to rip him apart, piece by piece with her bare paws. Dig her claws in and then pull chunks off of him will all her might until nothing was left.

The vixen slammed her fist onto the padded mattress until her arm grew tired, all the while her face stifled by the feathery pillow. As her infinite rage finally stopped, her thrashing halted and there was left was to get rid of the remaining tears. She sobbed out loud, no choking anything down or gritting her teeth. She was in pain, hot searing pain with which there was no pill or medicine she could swallow to ease it. She coiled up into a ball, pressing her knees against her chest as she wrapped her arms around her legs.

Carmelita never felt this way, never acted this way. It frightened her to no extent, realizing how frail she really was. But anyone would break, being smashed into tiny little pieces like that, anyone would be reduced to a pile of tears and curses and rage. _"He was right,"_ she thought to herself, her face lifting from the pillow. _"He was right about Cooper..."_

She pushed off the bed and sat on the edge, looking at the floor as she shifted through her memory. All those horrible things she said to him...the way she was treating him. She guessed that he didn't remember much from his drunken outburst a few days ago, but still, that was truly how he felt, and he let her know the whole story. Standing up from the bed, she hatched a quick plan into her mind in order to make things right, at least, in her eyes. She slowly opened the door, leaning out to see Dorian giving a dead man's stare at the television.

She frowned deeply as she fully walked out of her room, her feet creaking against the hard floor. Dorian blinked and shifted his irises towards her as he saw her approach. He swallowed a lump in his throat as he nervously slid farther to the side on the couch. His brows rose as she sat next to him and placed a gentle paw on his leg. The ocelot leaned back slightly as she stared at him, a slight smile curling on her lips.

A few tears rolled down her cheek as she reached up and touched his, feeling the bristling fur and his long whiskers. He didn't know how to react, so he simply stood stiff as a statue as she rubbed the side of his face. His heart was aflutter, this as more then he could have ever asked for, he would have settled for just a friendly "Hi" and he would have been one with the world. "You were right," she said, leaning closer to his face. "I'm so sorry."

"What..." he breathed. His mind ran wild as he was confused and stunned with shock. "Carmelita, what's going on?" Instead of a verbal response, he was given the grace of the vixen placing her lips on his neck, leaving soft, little kisses.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered in between kisses. "You were right about Cooper all along...I don't know him at all." She pressed harder and fiercer with her kisses as she moved up to nuzzle his cheek and kiss the side of his muzzle. Dorian dug his claws into the sofa cushion as the toes from within his boots curled. Sitting on his lap, she placed her paws onto his shoulders and pushed against his mouth, warm breath rushing out from her nose.

The feline didn't know what to do. A moment ago, she hated his very existence, not wanting to utter a single word to him. Now however, she wanted nothing more then to consume him. Slowly, he raised his paws and gently placed them on her back, hesitating to rub them slowly up and down her. She pulled her lips from his as she slid out of her jacket and pulled down on the zipper of her halter top, exposing her silk white bra.

Dorian's heart climbed up his throat and throbbed with every beat. Worming her way out until she was in nothing but her undergarments, she straddled his waist and placed her lips onto his again. Clutching his shirt, Carmelita slowly began unbuttoning it until she crept down to the last one. Pulling the flaps of fabric back, she pulled it off him and roughly pulled off his white undershirt. The ocelot's pointed ears flattened against his skull as his eyes lazily began to close.

"_He's going...he's going...AND HE'S GONE!" _The announcer's voice from the radio seemed to reflect perfectly what was happening behind the walls of the apartment's common room.

Feeling her warm palms rub against his bare chest sent chills over his entire body, feeling the sweet taste of her kiss. Yet he felt an unfamiliar taste to her as well, some hidden motive he had only just recently detected. "All this time," Carmelita sighed as she pulled her lips from his mouth and buried her snout into his neck. "All those things I said to you, the way I treated you. It was all wrong, I'm so sorry. You were right about that man all along."

Now he knew what was truly happening. Bringing in a deep breath, he slowly pushed Carmelita off and grabbed her jeans from off the floor. Offering the denim pants, he slowly shook his head and frowned. "Carmelita," he said with pain and reluctance. "I can't do this for you." She gasped and raised her brows at him, touching her fingers to her lips. "I can't be the fall guy. I'm sorry, but I won't sleep with you just so I could be used to get back at Cooper**…**what ever he did. If you want me, I want you to be in it for me, not petty jealousy…"

The vixen breathed heavily as she came to realize what she was doing. "Oh God," she breathed, collecting her cloths from off the floor. "I-I'm sorry, I have to-

She was cut off as she stood up and quickly went back into her room, slamming the door. Dorian sat on the couch for a moment, his eyes closing as he ran a paw over his face to run through his hair. Sighing, he glanced back at the floor and picked up his shirt. Looking down at his lap, he groaned to the heat and pressure he felt as he clenched his teeth and hissed, pulling back his ears and whiskers. "I need some air," he muttered under his breath.

Grabbing his coat from the hook, he opened the door and looked out to the empty hallway of the apartment for a moment before glancing back to see the vixen's door. Shaking his head, he closed the door behind him and went out into the streets.

Carmelita, on the other side of the door collapsed into tears once more. She was embarrassed beyond belief; thinking of what manic power possessed her to do such things. She prayed to every known deity in existence that Dorian wouldn't tell anyone anything about what was almost a reality. She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. She felt filthy, caked with mud and mold that crept across her flesh.

Heading for the bathroom, she heaved and felt an intense pressure in her head as a wave of stress slammed against her. She shed her cloths and stepped into the shower, attempting to wash off the metaphorical muck that caked her body.

* * *

"My God, this is pure gold!" Scarlet shouted with glee. Sitting on the edge of the fire escape of the apartment building, she took picture after picture of each and every sultry, provocative movement between the two animals. As she finished, she collected her photos and slid down the rails and onto the street. Shuffling through each photo, it was somewhat like one of those animated flip books.

Each shot depicting Carmelita shedding her cloths and pulling off the ocelot's shirt before straddling his waist and melting her lips against his. "Perfect," she sneered. Stuffing the ones she personally picked back into her purse, she slipped the others into her shirt and licked her lips. "Well...best to be getting back to Indigo. He must be pulling his hair out by now, the poor thing...I'll get him something special for what I've put him through."

* * *

The malamute crunched another cigarette into the ashtray, a thin trail of smoke slithering from the still smoldering tip. After a few minutes of nervously tapping his foot against the floor, he reached into his pocket and lit another small white wrapped stick of tobacco. The old record player behind him spun the black disk as the melody of a piano and an elegant female voice sounded in the background. He sighed and closed his eyes as he blew out another cloud of smoke, tapping his finger against his forehead. Blue glanced at the door once more for what had to be the millionth time.

She was never gone this long, what in God's name was she up to? Most likely getting throttled by that damned raccoon, he thought. If she didn't kill him already, the canine most certainly would himself. He wasn't one for getting his paws bloodied, but that wouldn't stop him from tearing the master thief into confetti. A high pitched ringing caught his attention as he lifted the needle from the record player to halt the music.

Scarlet's cell phone chattered as it vibrated and rang against the small shelf it was placed on. Blue picked up the small box and looked at the digital display of the caller ID. The name _Crimson, Roy, _was displayed in digitized letters as Blue reluctantly pressed the talk button and placed the phone to his ear. "Scarlet, ah thank God you picked up! Listen, I have something for you-

"Scarlet's not here, Roy." Blue's interruption caused the voice on the other line to stumble awkwardly for a moment until he regained his composure.

"She's not, well where the hell is she?!"

"Now, there's no need for yelling, Roy."

"Shut the hell up and tell me where my sister is!" A blast of gun shots were heard in the background as Indigo pressed his ear closer to the phone, trying to listen to the shouts and gunfire.

"Were those gun shots?"

"Shut up, I need to talk to my sister, its important!" The malamute flattened his ears and gritted his teeth as the rage bubbled up from within him.

"Roy, she isn't here. You have something to say, tell it to me and I _might_ relay it back to Scarlet." Roy paused to regain his breath. He sounded winded from a long sprinting session before he finally coughed out his response.

"I found something important concerning her." He took a deep pull of oxygen before continuing. "I found a file containing information on her...oh yeah, and there was a little bit about you as well."

"Just get to the point." Blue's interruption gave him another chance to regain his breath.

"Colonel has ordered for our imitate execution! My sister and you are gonna get your heads blown off if you don't leave now!" Gun shots were heard once more as the line was disconnected.

"Roy...Roy, are you there?" The phone gave off a dull tone as he slapped it shut and sighed. He rubbed his fingers to his temples, but soon shot up as he heard someone enter the house. Quickly whipping out his silenced forty-five, he pointed the elongated barrel at Scarlet's nose. The vixen looked at the object just inches from her face and smiled.

"Why Indigo, I just love when you pull out your gun at me. You usually aren't one for the rough stuff." She pushed the barrel down slowly and stepped closer to the dog. "How's my darling doing this evening?"

"Not now, Scarlet..." he growled. "First tell me where you were?"

"What, no kiss?" Blue slowly blinked his eyes as he waited for an explanation. The vixen sighed and crossed her arms.

"Cooper, which I'm sure you were thinking this entire time. I suppose you're going to ask me where he lives and go cut out his tongue now." Blue pressed himself to her and gently wrapped his paws around her neck, just under her cheeks, rubbing them gently.

"No. We will kill him soon enough, but what I want to know is...did you happen to-

"No I did not sleep with him." Blue's eyebrows rose slightly as he uncoiled his fingers from her smooth, slender neck. "Lord knows I tried, the man's like a monk. All I kept hearing was Carmelita, Carmelita, Carmelita." Pushing up against him, she hugged him and rested the side of her head against his chest. "Oh, darling, I missed you."

Blue was wise to her tricks of false innocence as he pushed her up against the wall and clutched her neck, gripping a little tighter this time, yet leaving her able to breathe. "Scarlet, I've known you for long enough to know when you are playing with me. I'd stop right there, I'm not in the mood." He unwrapped his fingers from her once more and let the pressure off her body. She had forgotten how strong he could be, being one who doesn't normally use physical methods to incapacitate his foe.

"So, what has gotten you so angry all of a sudden? I told you I didn't sleep with Cooper at all."

"Did you kill him?"

"Heavens no, then I wouldn't of had any company. But we will have our chance soon enough." Blue saw the cigarette that he was previously smoking sitting on the table. He sighed and smashed it into the ashtray. Scarlet glanced over his shoulder and noticed how full the tray was of recently smoked cigarettes. "Did I make you smoke all those?"

Blue huffed and sat on the sofa that surrounded the table in the middle of the room. Lacing his fingers, he leaned forward as he sat and discussed their thoughts to one another. "I brought you something," she chided. "I'm sure you'll love it." Blue narrowed his eyes as Scarlet fished around in her purse, pulling out a small crumpled up piece of paper. Blue furrowed his eyebrows as he looked what appeared to be a store receipt.

"Asking me for money again, are you?" Blue gritted his teeth as he forced a smile. Scarlet giggled and reached over, rolling up the dog's sleeves as she planet a kiss onto his lips. Reaching back into her purse, she pulled out two, very small S&W Model 13-4 blued steel, 3" barrel, round butt with aftermarket Pachmayr grips. The small guns that could be easily concealed by a shirt sleeve glinted in the light. Blue smiled at the little pistols for a moment before glancing back up at Scarlet.

"And that's not all," she stated. Pulling out what appeared to be a paw full of straps; Blue soon found it to be wrist holsters specifically designed for the left and right forearm. "Try them on, tell me what you think." The malamute quickly grabbed them off the table and holstered each pistol, strapping them onto his wrists. As he rolled his sleeves back down, they were flawlessly concealed.

Shooting his arms out in front of him, he flicked his wrists and the guns quickly slipped out of their holsters and perfectly into the dog's paws. If they were loaded, it would be a quick end for whomever they were pointed at. "Beautiful," he said as he slipped them back into their holsters and flipped them out again. "But how did you get these? They were specifically designed as an FBI magnum."

"Oh...a certain special someone who understands how urgent our contract is," Blue quirked his eyebrows, but soon shook his head in realization. Chuckling, he un-strapped the three inch barrel revolvers and placed them on the table.

"That lizard certainly knows the right kind of people." The guns kept grabbing his attention with their smooth, sleek black steel bodies. He ached for when he would be able to use them. "They're beautiful, thank you sweetheart." He then frowned as he remembered about that certain phone call from her brother. Instead of spoiling the moment, he decided to hold that bit of information for later.

He then wondered, what exactly was the Colonel up to at this moment in time?

* * *

Roy stopped for a moment to catch his breath, the screeching of car wheels causing his heart to skip a beat. He watched as the headlights slid over him, causing him to remain motionless. The lights passed over him and he let out a sigh of relief as he continued to press his back against cover. The old condemned building he hid in was his only cover within the limits he had ran. The red fox glanced at the Jericho 941 he held in his paw and slid out the clip, seeing a fresh bullet sitting within the magazine.

Loading the shell, he watched for a moment as the coal black sedan came to a halt by the building. The driver exited from the car and opened the back passenger door. Crawling from the confines of the vehicle was a man shrouded in darkness. Looking much like the embodiment of evil as a burning cigar was clenched between his teeth. Colonel glanced up at the shattered window of the old building, causing Roy to quail from his view and press against the wall again.

Colonel scratched his chin and reached into the car, signaling for the driver to leave. After pulling from the vehicle, it sped away, leaving the man to his own devices. Reaching into the pitch black body, he withdrew a gleaming custom made Desert Eagle; the gigantic fifty caliber pistol looked as if it could launch a bullet with enough force to punch a hole through a tank. The elongated clip jutted out from the bottom of the grip, adding an extra seven bullets to the standard seven per clip. "Shit..." the vulpine cursed.

Colonel's ears flicked as he titled his shadowed head towards the sound and leveled the barrel of his gun to the window. Clicking a switch, the hand cannon erupted in a rapid explosion of shells as it fired bullet after bullet. Each slug punched a hole through the rickety old house, all fourteen being spent in less then three seconds. The empty cartridges clinked and chimed as they hit the ground along with the massive clip that Colonel ejected from the handle. Slapping in another, he pulled back the bridge and loaded a fresh bullet into the barrel.

The massive recoil of the handgun in full-auto was almost non-existent thanks to the braces he wore against his arms and making the gun heavier with the extended clip and the type of metal it was made from. Glancing at the DE, he flicked the switch, changing the mode of fire from the custom full automatic fire, to three round burst. He plucked the stub of a cigar from his lips and ground it into dust from the tip of his shoe. Roy's chest heaved as he regained his footing after rolling out of the wall. He swore if he didn't know better, he thought an artillery strike had struck his shelter.

Hearing footsteps slowly walk up the stairs, he leveled the barrel to the stairway and waited for any sign of the Colonel's head to come into his line of sight. As the tip of his dark ear emerged from the first floor, Roy unloaded his ammunition at the mob boss, the .375 rounds smacking against the wall. Colonel leaned forward, dodging the rounds as he sprinted up the rest of the stairs and leapt into the air. Somersaulting while airborne, he dodged a few more rounds before he ran towards the fox head on. Strafing from left to right as he ran towards the vulpine, he lifted his foot and slammed his knee into the vulpine's mid section, following up with bringing his fists down in a hammering motion on the back of the red fox's neck.

Roy coughed and gagged as he was floored by the powerful blow, shooting his eyes open as he flipped back up off the ground and took out Colonel's legs. With a rolling sweep of his legs, Roy jumped back up onto his feet and raised his foot skyward before bringing it straight down. Colonel crossed his forearms and blocked the blow, grabbing the vulpine's ankle and tossing him away. Roy flipped around to land on his feet as he drew his weapon, finding that the Colonel stood just inches in front of him and he grasped the Jericho's barrel. Jabbing Roy in the jugular, Colonel slammed his shoulder into the fox and wrenched the gun from his red furred paw.

The shadowy form clicked back the bridge of the gun and dismantled the pistol, ejecting the clip and pulling out the bridge bolt. Roy watched as pieces of his gun dropped to the floor and gritted his teeth. "That was a gift," he chided. Colonel tossed the handle at the vulpine and rolled his wrists as he took a fighting stance.

"Get up now, I want you to die a warrior's death." Roy smirked as he cracked his neck by sharply tilting his head and he stood up. Roy took a stance of his own, waiting as the two combatants stared down one another. Colonel started with a high sweep of his leg, the strike blocked as Roy absorbed the impact with the blunt side of his forearm. Grabbing the leg, he flipped Colonel around, only for the shadowy opponent to flip through the air and land back on his feet.

"Your arms always were a little thin," Colonel chided as he turned around. He anticipated a punch and bright his foot in front of Roy's pushing him forward so that the vulpine would land flat on his face. Roy stopped his fall by shooting his paws out in front of him as he pushed off the floor. Lifting himself up by the paws, he swung his legs and caught Colonel in the snout a few times with the tips of his boots. The force was powerful enough to break a fully grown man's neck in two as Roy stood back up and saw the motionless dark body lying on the floor.

"And you always had a spine made out of glass, sir." Roy chuckled as he picked up the pieces of his Jericho and cradled them in his paws.

"Hold...there...boy..." Roy froze as he ears flattened, slowly turning around to see a wobbly legged Colonel with his neck bent to the side. The shadowy mob boss' cheek touched his right shoulder as his neck was bent back from snapping in half. No one could have survived such a blow, having your head twisted back and your neck snapped like a twig. With nauseating cracking and snapping noises, Colonel pushed his head from his shoulder and readjusted his head so that it sat normally on his neck once more.

Roy's jaw nearly touched the floor as Colonel rolled his head around on his neck a few times and rolled his shoulders forward. "Ah, wonderful, I've had that stiff neck for hours." Roy remained frozen. Colonel gave a deep, dark chuckle to the vulpine's expression. "Something wrong, boy? You look surprised."

"What the hell are you?" The red vulpine backed away slowly as he searched his immediate surroundings.

"I wanted this to be your last defining moment, but you having snapped my neck in half has given me second thoughts." Reaching into the folds of pure blackness, he withdrew his custom DE and lazily pointed it at the vulpine's head with one paw on the handle. Roy's eyes grew large as he dove for the wall nearest him, hearing a three round burst before a slight pause, followed by another three shots being rapidly ejected from the barrel. Colonel would have blasted through the wall Roy was hiding behind, yet from the position the vulpine was huddled in, a large metal plank was able to absorb the impact of the shells.

Colonel shifted his gaze from the crater filled hole to a steel pole that supported the side of the condemned building. Smirking, he lifted the barrel a few inches and shot a single bullet to smack against the girder and ricochet off the hard surface, slamming into something soft. A pain filled groan graced Colonel's ears as he blew the smoke away from his gun's barrel and strolled over to the wall, turning a corner to see Roy clutching his stomach, his breath coming in and out in gasps. The being of pure darkness pulled out a cigar and placed it between his teeth, withdrawing a match and striking the red tip against Roy's nose. The vulpine winced as his nose struck the match and the rich smell of burning Cuban tobacco and blood graced his nostrils.

Colonel blew out a puff of smoke as he listened to the fox's last words. "That kid was on to something...using his bullets to ricochet off a surface...so he could hit anyone from any angle. He's good...too much math for me though...I never was good at number crunching. Never thought...I'd be...done in...by it." He gave a few more hoarse breaths as his throat began filling up with blood.

Colonel took a bite out of the end of his cigar and spat it out and onto the floor. Watching for a moment longer as the vulpine struggled to hold his guts within his body; he slowly raised his DE and leveled it with Roy's head. "Normally I would have hauled you off to my chamber, strip you naked and have you submerged in a bathtub full of water as I electrocuted you into submission. But...it does pain me to do this. You are a part of the Crimson blood line after all, such a fine assassin you and your sister were."

"Get it over with then..." Colonel clicked the safety off his fifty caliber machine pistol and clicked back the hammer.

"Goodbye, Roy..." The shockwave heard around the world echoed through Colonel's ears for a moment as blood and chunks of skull painted the wall behind the limp body. The rather gruesome, vulgar execution was considered mercy in the mob boss' eyes. If it was anyone else, he would have tortured the man to his hearts content until their body, as well as their spirit was shattered into pieces before he delivered them to Lucifer's front door. Colonel flipped open his cellular phone and pulled out the antenna.

"I've finished here," he spoke calmly and coldly as he always did. "I need a cleaning crew on fifty-third, make sure not one bullet shell is forgotten." Colonel slapped the phone shut and glanced at the floor once more. Inspecting the body, he plucked the already reassembled Jericho 941 from the fox's lifeless paw. "So...he really was paying attention during weapons assembling lessons."

Taking the pistol from the body, he turned around as he heard the sounds of multiple cars coming to a screeching stop in front of the building. The cleaning crew was already on the scene, sweeping up bullet shells and storming upstairs to scrub the blood off the walls and floors as they fixed or covered up anything that wasn't there prior to the two animal's battle. Looking at the Jericho one last time, he gripped the handle and felt the grooves bury into the leather of his gloves and press against his padded palm. "A nice little trinket for my collection."


	18. What Do You Fight For?

**Chapter 18**

**What Do You Fight For?**

* * *

_Author's note: A little weekend reading for you all. I warn you now, however. This is without a doubt the longest chapter I have ever typed for a story (so far). Around twenty-one pages, and the fight scene doesn't even end there. This is a massive chapter, with which my beta IgnorantOne had helped me create with his brilliant story telling abilities. So if the length of the chapter bugs you...go complain to him, heheh. Anyway, be prepared, take deep breaths, go to the bathroom, maybe grab a snack or something cause you're probably gonna be here for awhile. R&R and enjoy._

* * *

_**T**he roaring engine of the ultra fast Ninja ZX-14 zoomed down the streets as the hazy red and white lights trailed by with each turn. It weaved through the cracks and gaps of other cars as it sped by in a blur of black and yellow. The one who guided the sheer unstoppable speed of the motorcycle handled it with professional skill and ability, anticipating every move before it even happened. His jacket flapped violently as the wind flowed through the fabrics of his clothing. The sleek, black and yellow helmet caught every small glimmering light on its reflective surface, the lights sliding off like water droplets as he sped by._

_He tightened his grip on the handle, causing the glove's fabric to give off a tightening, stretching tune. Turning, he leaned hard to the side to steer respectively at the high speed that he zoomed at. He was well over the speed limit, three or so police cruisers attempted to pull him over by now but they were easily shaken away. Through the visor of his helmet, he moved his irises toward the watch strapped to his wrist and then glanced back up to his front. His shoulders shifted and the bones sat more comfortably in their sockets as he relaxed himself and slowed down a little._

_Coming to a halt at a red light, he placed a foot on the road as he sat on his rumbling machine, looking through the visor for a moment. Before the light turned, he revved his bike and sped straight down the road, past the traffic and leaned to the left in another turn. As he glanced out of the corner of his eyes, he soon slowed down as he scanned the area for his attended destination. Stopping in front of a dimly lit home, the cyclist fished around in the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper. Etched on the white scrap's face was a series of numbers that spelt out the address of the home he now faced. _

_Slowly lifting the visor open with a finger, he glanced at the house, seeing the dim lantern light up the porch and door. Smirking, he un-strapped the helmet and slid it from his head, slowly wheeling the cycle into the stretch of smooth concrete and out of the road. Killing the engine, he placed the helmet on the seat and flipped out the kickstand. As he clutched the tab of the zipper from the brim of his neck, he slowly pulled down until it was about half way down to his stomach. Coming to the door, he jiggled the knob for a moment, finding it locked and unresponsive._

_Fishing out a pair of tools, he slid the hook into the keyhole and another thin, flat piece as he slowly tapped the tumblers up and locked them into place. Picking the lock open, he slowly pushed open the door and stepped inside. The hardwood floor gave off a slight screech, causing the cyclist to freeze up for a moment before un-strapping his boots and placing them by the door. Slowly moving up the stairs, the hard, cold wood was replaced by lush, thick, noise absorbing carpet. He hugged himself against the wall as he sidestepped up the stairs._

_Glancing around the corner, the hallway was spotted with framed photographs and wooden doors. Most were closed, except for one that was at the far end, the door just cracked open enough for someone to slip in and out. As he crept down the hallway, he slithered in through the crack of the door and entered the bedroom. His eyes became locked on the two large lumps under the sheets of the bed inside. Both forms slowly rose and fell with their rhythmic breathing, the comforting sighs muffling the almost soundless footsteps. _

_The intruder crept to the right side of the mattress, seeing a head of blazing red hair resting on the pillow. The blankets came just below the red vixen's bare shoulders as her paws rested on the pillow beside her head. The prowler slowly reached into his jacket and pulled his paw back from the confines of the leather sportswear. Following his paw was a smooth, round chamber followed by a long barrel; the sleek steel glinted in the soft moonlight. Pulling out a second revolver, each were trained on the two specific bodies lying on the bed, sound asleep. _

_The prowler's thumb slowly rose and rested on the hammer of each gun as it slowly pulled back, giving off a somewhat melodic mechanical click. The vixen's ears twitched and her eyes shot open with a gasp as her nails dug into the pillow reflexively. An echoing blast was heard, and then everything went dark._

* * *

"Scarlet!" Indigo shouted as he shot up in bed, thrashing around until he fell off the mattress, the sheets being ripped away and tumbled down along with him. Scarlet awoke and gasped as she crawled over to the other side of the bed and looked down at the bundle of blankets and limbs. The dog tore the sheets that wrapped around his head away to get a clear view of his surroundings, looking from his spot on the floor. Pushing off, he stood up and looked around, glancing at Scarlet as he dove for her.

The vixen stiffened as she watched Blue roam his paws all over her, turning her head and lifting her arms, touching every square inch of her. "Darling, what is it, what's going on?"

"Are you hurt?" His question caused her to quirk a brow.

"I'm fine...I've been sleeping here next to you the entire time."

"You're fine...fine. Then it was a dream..."

"A dream, darling," Scarlet rested on her paws and knees as she leaned forward to the malamute that sat on the mattress. "What dream was this?" The dog's eyes were dilated to pinholes as the glowing blue irises seemed to consume the pupils completely. He blinked and shook his head as he cleared the fog from his mind.

"Dream...a dream," he glanced at the floor and then to the wall. "Nothing...it was nothing." Looking down at his paws, he slowly uncoiled his clawed fingers, seeing small imprints of where his claws dug into his palm from clenching his fist too tightly. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he glanced out the bedroom window for a moment until a pair of warm paws began rubbing his shoulders. Sighing, he closed his eyes and drew his ears to point behind him as he heard Scarlet talking behind him.

"You want to try sleeping again? I'll help if you need it...lover." Pressing her lips into his ear, she whispered seductively into it. He however was far too tense for such friendly activities as he sat up and walked out of the bedroom. Stopping by the doorway, he glanced over his shoulder to the vixen sitting alone on the bed, the offer of intimate desire already laid bare for the taking. Indigo shook his head slowly and sighed.

"I need a smoke." Scarlet's ears fell flat; only on rare occasions did Indigo ever turn down her offer. Glancing down, she scooped up the blankets from the floor and reset them on the mattress. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was a little past midnight. Yawning, she brought a paw to her lips and looked back at the doorway until crawling back into bed.

"He'll be back soon," she told herself with a small frown.

* * *

Clicking back the switch, a spark ignited the gas and produced a flame as Blue brought it to the tip of his cigarette. Slowly puffing out clouds of smoke, he walked around the house for a moment and ran his fingers across the smooth counter as he walked through the kitchen. Rubbing his eyes, he inhaled another breath full of rich, thick smoke. He glanced back towards the living room where the stairs to the bedroom was located, pondering in his mind the decisions that plagued him even in his sleep. Colonel was after them, he wanted the two of them dead.

He wanted them exterminated down to their last bloodline. His heart felt caked with lead as it sat heavy in his chest, having the knowledge that Scarlet's brother was most likely dead...or soon to be dead. He remembered Colonel's fondness of torturing his victims to his satisfaction...which mostly lead to their grisly death. Roy was dead, but what of their fate? Would they somehow stand a chance being able to anticipate their master's schemes?

His mind racked inside his head like a pebble shaking around inside a tin can, causing him to push down on his ears with his paws, watching the trail of smoke slither upward through tired eyes. Blinking felt like pulling teeth with how much it took out of him. Stepping into the common room, he slumped down on the couch and sighed as he sorted through the pieces in his head. Sifting through them like little grains of sand or ash, he put them together and came up with a decent picture to him. He played out the scenario in his mind for a moment, making mental notes of what would be best, and what would be wise.

He winced at the mental picture of Scarlet becoming struck with shock and terror of hearing her brother's grisly death. She would most likely need to break into her medicine bottle and guzzle half the contents to simply take the edge off of the reality. He loved her too much to do that to her...but the reason it was so difficult not to tell her was also because of the same passion he felt towards the vixen. He pulled his face from his paws as his ears swiveled behind him, hearing soft footsteps walking down the stairs. Smelling that amazing scent, the fur on his body bristled as goosebumps formed on his skin.

A few gentle fingers trailed on his back and left shoulder as Scarlet circled around him and took a seat on the sofa. Keeping eye contact constant on the table in front of him, he closed his eyes and sucked in a breath as Scarlet buried her nose into his neck and clamped her jaws down softly on his flesh. "Please, Scarlet..."

"What is the matter with you," she piped as she removed her mouth from his neck. "Normally you pounce all over me at the first hint. Something is seriously wrong with you, Darling." Blue moved his glowing blue irises that seemed dimmer and darker then normal.

"Scarlet...have you ever had to tell someone...someone you deeply love something that could hurt them? Did you ever struggle with the decision to protect those you love from the truth...or to tell them this truth and risk hurting them?" Blue knew the vixen wasn't the best person to talk about harming another person's feelings; she was a master at it herself after giving her victims sheer joy and ecstasy right before she ended their lives.

"Darling, you have nothing to worry about...I already know what's going on." She cooed and wrapped her arms around him. Blue's face lit up with a brighter expression as he looked towards her directly and raised his brows.

"You do?"

"Yes...I understand you're not as 'energetic' as you used to be. But don't worry; they have pills for your problem getting it up again." Blue broke out of her embrace and stood up, his cheeks burning red.

"No, dammit, it isn't that!" He snapped and ran his paws through his hair as he hissed smoke out from his nostrils. Dropping his arms to hang lazily at his sides, he leaned back to stare at the roof of his home and gritted his teeth. "Scarlet this is more important than...that."

"Well what the hell is it already?" Blue looked back as the vixen patiently waited for his response. Blue pushed against his jaw so hard he thought it would pop off. Slowly shaking his head, he forced a smile.

"Nothing...it's nothing, sweetheart."

"Uh huh..." she chided. "Darling, I don't think of you any less of a man for having E.D. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem." She smiled wickedly to his response.

"I don't have a problem, dammit!" Folding his arms, he growled and slammed his eyes shut in frustration. Slowly cracking them open, he roamed his eyes up and down the vixen and smirked. "Take off your robe...then we'll see if I still have a problem."

* * *

The morning wind whipped against Sly as he stood atop a building of no particular importance. He had no where to go, nothing to do, he just felt like being up high and letting the wind slap against him. He sighed deeply in relaxation as he looked toward the rising sun. He always loved this time of the day, dimly lit, yet still able to see without the aid of lights. The stars hung in the sky for a moment longer before they hid behind the light of the sun.

Twirling his cane in his fingers, he watched one last moment as the sun finally peaked over the horizon and gave its first burst of orange and golden light to illuminate the city of Paris. "Funny how the city of lights needs help with one of the biggest light bulbs in the galaxy," the raccoon chuckled. He wished there was someone to share this with, unfortunately all he grasped was air as he reflexively wrapped an arm around a body that wasn't even there. He then thought about the missing piece of this puzzle. He suddenly wanted to spend some time with Carmelita, attempting to get the rather bad taste Scarlet left in his mouth.

It wasn't that he didn't enjoy his time with her, apart from the obvious of trying to get him to sleep with her. He felt somewhat disloyal and unclean from the whole affair, wanting to make it up to Carmelita without her knowing just why he wanted to spend time with her. Glancing around, he spotted the direction to the fox's apartment, quickly unlocking the muscles in his thighs as he broke into a dash in hopes of catching her before she left for work. Vaulting onto another rooftop, he sprinted down the length of the building and jumped, somersaulting through the air as he clutched the edge of a windowsill. Pushing up with his booted feet, he scaled the side of the building like a ladder until he stood atop of the complex.

Executing the elegant style of the ninja spire jump, he landed on the tips of his feet as he hopped from lamppost to lamppost until he latched onto the side of an apartment building. Scaling the side of the wall, he came to a window and peeked inside, gently pushing the flowing curtains from his point of view. He frowned as he saw no one resting in the bedroom, but decided to poke around for a bit to find the elusive vixen. Sniffing around, he picked her scent out from that of Dorian's, following his nose into the kitchen. The scent of coffee beans wafted to his nostrils as he touched the coffee machine, finding it still a little warm.

He sighed and turned around to leave out the window. Something caught his attention from the corner of his eye as he placed a foot onto the windowsill. Turning back, he saw a small letter, sealed by an envelope that bore an elegant signature of his name and the imprint of a lipstick stained kiss. Picking it up, he caught the scent of the fox's perfume and gently tore the top of the envelope open. Unfolding the paper sitting inside, he scanned his irises over the inked parchment, reading it word for word.

"_Dear Sly_

_I just knew you couldn't resist breaking into my apartment yet again. Trying to catch me in my nightgown are you? As you've probably noticed by now, I have left to go to work, there are other criminals out there besides you, ringtail. Dorian is not here either so you don't have to worry about running into him any longer. But enough about him, I wrote this letter with you in mind._

_Ringtail...Sly, my Sly, I left this letter for you to find so that we could arrange a meeting with one another. I've missed you, lying awake at nights just thinking about you and that smile of yours. I hope you will accept my invitation, I really wish to see you again. I'm sorry to say though, it won't be the most romantic of meetings, and you being a fugitive again, we will have to meet in secret. If you accept my invitation, then meet me at the old surplus warehouse near the western docks at nine P.M. tonight. _

_I promise you, I will be there waiting for you. If you accept, I wish to rekindle our relationship that never truly ended. I'll always love you, ringtail, which is why it is driving me crazy keeping us apart from one another for so long. Please...please be there._

_Carmelita_"

The letter ended there. Sly sniffed the paper once more and folded it, tucking it into the red holster strapped to his thigh. He sighed and glanced back out of the window, his mind processing what was happening. She really wanted to make up; she was thinking the same thing as him, just to start all over and push all of this madness out, to start fresh and new in their relationship. Sly couldn't help but begin to smile as his lips slowly stretched and curved upward.

Patting his holster, he turned around and vaulted out of the window, grasping onto the side of a building until he began climbing up towards the roof.

* * *

Zooming down the street, Carmelita faced forward as she gripped the steering wheel of Dorian's Mustang. It took some getting used to with the increased horsepower the Ford packed under its hood, but it wasn't too hard to manage. What irked her was the ghastly noise it gave off with even the slightest acceleration. Her grip tightened on the wheel, hearing the stretching of the leather with her iron grip. Last night's events still swam in her head; Dorian must have been thinking on it as well for he had not come back to her apartment yet.

"I'm sure he won't mind I took his car," she assured herself. "It was his fault for leaving the keys in plain sight anyway." She kept her sour attitude strong to lock away her bubbling emotions from coming to the surface, bringing her brows down in a firm glare as she took her drive. She thought about going back to the station for a few things from her office, so she gave a sharp turn and the engine purred with energy as she drove down to Interpol. Coming to a stop, she parked the car and slowly got out, stepping out of the parking garage and up into the main building.

She barely made eye contact with any of her co-workers, giving them a silent nod whenever any of them acknowledged her presence with a friendly wave. Unlocking her office door, she slipped in and closed it, heading for her desk. Pulling open her drawer, the first thing to greet her eyes was a rectangular envelope with an elegant signature of her name on the front. In blue ink no less. Guessing the letter was from Cooper; her curiosity got the better of her so she decided to not rip it to pieces and unfolded the letter open.

"_Dear Carmelita_

_I knew you would find this letter, how I've watched you open this drawer filled with my calling cards and read them over and over again. Does that say you still love me? Because I still love you, Carmelita. This is why I'm writing this letter, it's driving me mad being this far from you for so long. If you would, I wish to begin our relationship anew, though it never truly ended for either of us. _

_I'm sorry that I didn't have a bouquet of roses or a box of chocolates to go with this card; I've been having troubles with these assassins as you have and it's difficult to stay in one place for so long. I want to be there for you, I know we can both stop them if we work and stand together. Whenever we pair up, we always achieve success. We've always been good together, Carmelita, which is why I give you the choice of meeting me at the old surplus warehouse by the west docks by nine P.M. tonight. I wish it were at a nice restaurant or a resort, but me being a fugitive from the law, we can't let anyone know or see us together._

_Please be there, Carmelita, I'll be waiting for you. I love you very much._

_Sly__"_

The letter finally ended, leaving a bad taste in the vixen's mouth. She still loved the raccoon to death, which was apparent; otherwise she would have shredded the letter on the spot without even glancing at the message. But what he did to her, the knowledge that she possessed of what happened late yesterday at the Eiffel Tower, it nearly crushed her to dust, the tiny grains of sand that used to be her being had been scattered across the floor and would take years to pick up every little piece and fit them back together again. Seeing as this would be a good opportunity to meet the raccoon face-to-face, she decided to accept his invitation. Not only did she want to rearrange his face and maybe break a few of his fingers, but she too also wanted to get all of this business out of her head.

He spoke logic; teaming up with one another would be the smart thing to do. They've had a record for success with each time they were partnered up, defeating Clockwerk twice as well as saving one another's lives from Dr. M. "Fine...I'll only break maybe a few fingers," she sighed. "You deserve that much from me, ringtail."

* * *

"Check and mate," Indigo Blue chided as he licked his lips. Looking through the pair of binoculars he held against his face, he watched on his perch through the window of Carmelita Fox's office, watching as she read the letter. Scarlet moved up to brush against his side as she peered over him.

"Let me see, let me see." Blue handed her the scope and she began giggling as she watched the other vixen. "Oh Indigo, you know just how to make me happy. She took the bait. Good thinking of taking one of Cooper's calling cards to forge his signature and handwriting. The pieces fit so perfectly." Blue pulled out the raccoon shaped blue card from his pocket and held it between two fingers, waving it around in triumph.

"I think I'll hold onto this until Mr. Cooper and Miss Fox come to our agreed upon meeting area." The vixen sat the binoculars down and kissed the side of the malamute's face as he picked the binoculars back to his face. He watched the vixen through the window for another moment, glancing up and down her curvaceous figure; his eyes locking on the thick flowing tail. "_If Scarlet can fantasize about that raccoon, I can do so with her",_ he thought to himself, an image of the inspector on all fours in black silk panties and bra, her chest heaving and eyes half closed as she panted; her body letting off a tantalizing scent. Indigo smiled a little bit, but it disappeared when he reminded himself on how raw he felt when Scarlet shared a bed with Cooper, even if it didn't lead to anything.

But he still felt toyed with, as most men do whenever being around Scarlet for a period of time. He sometimes caught himself comparing himself to her victims; being screwed and then done away with, the only difference was that he was still alive while her targets lay six feet under. Smirking, he watched Inspector Fox leave as he clamped his jaw against his teeth. "Soon enough Cooper..."

* * *

The hours ticked by, each glance at the round face of the watch strapped to his wrist seemed to taunt him. Why was it that time had to slow down whenever looking forward to something? Sly flattened his ears, he hated waiting, he hated standing still, and he hated a mystery. He was better at causing them then being a part of one. The sun had gone down about an hour or so ago, leaving the raccoon shrouded in the star filled sky, the sea of lights from Paris catching his eyes to their beauty.

He sat leaned up against the stone gargoyle that seemed to be his most frequent source of company. He scratched his chin, thinking of what Bentley, Murray, and Penelope were up to at this moment, hoping they were making better progress then him. Another half hour passed and he resorted to combing his fingers through his hair, tugging impatiently on the strands between his palms. He decided that it was time for him to be moving to the docks. Grabbing his cane, he stood on the edge of the building, spreading his arms as he executed a freefall, popping open the chute of his glider and grasping the cables as he steered his way west.

* * *

The red Mustang sped down the street as Carmelita made a sharp turn, following the signs to her destination. The vixen kept her lips tight and her expression hard as she sorted through possibilities of when she would eventually arrive at the warehouse. Seeing the reflective surface of the water glistening with the lights of the city, her heart sped up as she was getting closer to the docks, and getting closer to Cooper. Coming to a rumbling halt, she turned the key and silenced the engine as she looked out the windows. She contemplated whether or not to step out of the car, biting her bottom lip in thought.

Glancing at her watch, she found herself a few minutes early, deciding to just sit in the car for a moment longer. Watching the gently churning water, she noticed how far away the lights of the larger part of the city were. This truly was a desolate place; no one had come here in what looked like ages except maybe late night mischief makers, that being apparent by the multiple tags and gang related graffiti left on sides of buildings. Glancing at her watch once more, she sighed as an inadequately short time had passed, deciding to come out of the car and stand by the docks as she waited for Sly. Opening the door, she placed a booted foot on the ground; the gravel riddled concrete crunching against her leather sole.

She leaned against a wood post, her arms crossed and eyes fixed on the glowing lights that seemed so far away. She never traveled this far out of the city at night, the dark corners being places she tended to avoid. But now that she thought about it, these sorts of places would be perfect for a certain raccoon to hide during late hours. She almost burst out laughing right there from this, how idiotic she was of not thinking these things sooner. The ruffling of fabric caught her ears as they perked up to catch the sound more vividly.

As it ended, she turned around to find the source, seeing nothing but shadows and shimmering lights from the reflective water's surface. A glimmer of movement caused her heart to pick up pace as she reached into her jacket and wrapped her fingers around the handle of her shock pistol. "Carmelita?" A voice from the darkness called to her, the charming, gentle masculine voice sent a familiar tingle up her spine.

"Sly?" A joyful, tooth filled smile came from the shadowed corner of the warehouse near the docks as a pair of chocolate brown eyes watched her. Sly Cooper walked from the darkness and up to the vixen standing by the water, his footsteps making no noise against the wood planks that made up the dock. He smiled as he stood just inches from her, drinking in the sight of her.

"Hey, I got your-

His speech was cut off as Carmelita's fist buried into his gut. He was caught completely by surprise as the air rushed out of his lungs like a balloon being stretched open. Grasping his stomach, he crashed to his knees and gagged. "What...was that for...?"

"You have no idea how good that felt. And don't think for a second this is anyone's fault but your own." Cooper glanced up at her, hurt in his eyes as he was confused beyond belief.

"Why...what have I done? You brought me out all the way here...just to punch me in the gut?"

"Me? You're the one who sent me the letter for us to meet here."

"No..." he said as he sucked in air and regained his footing. "You sent me a letter, asking me to come meet you here. You said you wanted to start our relationship over again, not to crack my ribs open." Carmelita blinked and quirked a brow, soon finding her anger bubbling up again.

"Well, you deserved that and more for what you did to me!"

"What do you mean? What have I done?!"

"Like you don't know, it was only yesterday! I saw you with that...that succubus and how you were laying your paws all over her, letting her crawl up and down you as she buried her nose into your neck. I thought I knew you, Cooper. And now you have the nerve to ask for my forgiveness by sending me a latter full of lies."

"I never sent you a letter!" His voice echoed, leaving every other noise to quickly become silent. Carmelita could only hear the sloshing of the water as it swayed under the wooden dock. Calming himself, Sly took off his cap and grasped it hard in his paw. "I got a letter from you telling me to be here, you said you wished to rekindle our relationship, to push all this madness away and start over again, which is exactly how I've felt about this."

Looking away, he watched the water for a moment before continuing. "And yes, I was with Scarlet at the Eiffel Tower yesterday. Nothing happened; she was trying to get me to fall for her. What you saw was not me giving into her whims, but simply pretending so she would stop trying to pursue me so vigorously. I'm sorry you had to see that."

Carmelita remained silent for a moment, blinking her eyes as she balled her fists again. Sly saw her fingers coil around her palms and closed his eyes in anticipation to another punch, yet it never came. "You said I sent you a letter," her voice caused him to open his eyes again. "But I never did. I got a letter saying it was from you to meet me here...yet you claim you never sent it to me."

"You mean...that letter wasn't from you?" A noise from within the warehouse caused their eyes to look skyward. A slight movement was seen through the windows as the two looked at one another.

"We will talk about this later," she said. "I have a feeling we will find an answer to all this in there." Sly nodded and rested his cane on his shoulder as he grasped the pole in his right paw, placing the blue cap atop his head once more. Carmelita pulled out her shock pistol and checked the charge level before disengaging the safety. As they reached the entrance, they found a pile of chains and a padlock that had been cut with what looked to have been heavy-duty wire-cutters, allowing one to enter the abandoned building.

The fox glanced at the raccoon as he pushed open the door and slowly stepped in first. Carmelita clicked on the light attached to her pistol as she sidestepped inside, locking her shoulders into place as she scanned the area diligently. Sly couldn't be more opposite from her, casually strutting inside with his cane resting on his shoulder as he clutched the brim of his hat with his free paw. He gave a high-pitched whistle that startled the vixen next to him, her tail puffing out. "Ollie, ollie oxen free," he shouted, his words bouncing off the walls in an echo.

Carmelita threw a punch towards him, but he reflexively stepped out of the way, dodging it completely as he seemed oblivious to Carmelita even swinging her fist at him. "We know you're in here," the vixen shouted, a bit more professionally then her partner. "Come out slowly with your hands on your head." A metal _clink _was heard as a small capsule was tossed out into the open and slowly rolled towards the pair.

Both the fox and raccoon's eyes grew as they jumped away from the apparent explosive device and took cover. The grenade didn't explode however; rather it began bellowing a thick fog from its core. "Gas, get away from there, ringtail!" Sly cupped a paw over his mouth as the two clambered up a ladder and onto the second story, sprinting up stair cases until emerging on the roof of the warehouse. The two panted for a moment, coughing from the ashy taste the smog left in their mouths.

"Darling, is that anyway to treat guests?"

"Forgive me, sweetheart, I thought they wouldn't mind if I smoked." Both Sly and Carmelita looked behind themselves to see a pair of figures standing atop the higher level of the roof. A pair of glowing blue orbs watched them like a vulture from a perch as a wicked laughter echoed through their ears. Indigo Blue and Scarlet Crimson stepped down the stairs to come to even ground with Sly and Carmelita, both killers keeping their eyes locked with their prey. "A lovely evening, is it not?" Blue chuckled as the cigarette placed between his lips sent a tendril of smoke to slowly float skyward.

"Breath taking I would think." Scarlet said beside the malamute. Carmelita's brown irises quickly locked onto the other vixen as she barred her teeth and began walking up towards Scarlet. Blue quickly pulled out a silenced forty-five and pointed the elongated barrel to the Inspector, a red laser sight painting a dot on her chest where her beating heart lie.

"Now, now, it would be a shame to all mankind if we damaged that chest of yours." Carmelita stopped and stood still as the sight clicked off and Blue slid his gun back behind himself. He wore a black pinstriped vest over a dark blue Van Heusen button up shirt. A pair of black dress pants held by a silver buckled belt and black polished wingtips adorned his lower half as a black coat draped over his shoulders. Scarlet was dressed in a blazing red sweater as a red women's trench coat hung open for her chest to show well through the sweater. A pair of tight black pants and red go-go boots covered her lower half.

"Well, we seem to have our two lovelies together in one place. How fortunate for us. And if you are still wondering, yes, we sent those letters to each of you to get you here. Being so far out from the city, I doubt anyone will hear anything." Sly grit his teeth as Scarlet sauntered over to the raccoon, cupping her paw under his chin.

"I've missed you, sweetie, how about a kiss for old time's sake?" Both Carmelita and Indigo flattened their ears and gave a deep growl as Sly averted his gaze from her.

"I'll give you three seconds to get your claws off him." Carmelita's stare could either freeze whiskey, or melt diamonds depending on how you took it. Scarlet however remained unfazed by this as her eyes flashed a venomous green as she licked her lips.

"Oh Sly, I've got a present for you." Scarlet reached into her purse. "Perhaps you shouldn't feel so bad about spending a few harmless hours with me. Just take a look at these photos. While you were away, Sly...that little vixen played. Oh...and she played well."

Scarlet tossed a manila envelope to Sly, and he opened it up, looking at Scarlet. "Pictures?" He asked before he started looking at each and every one of the photos. Sly had to double check, seeing every photo again and again, simply just to make sure they were the real thing. He remained silent as Carmelita moved closer to the raccoon to see what he was looking at. He moved away from her, keeping a good amount of distance from each other as his ears flattened against his skull.

"Sly...what is it?" She grew worried as his expression looked like one of a walking corpse. It was almost as if the photos began sucking the life from him. "Sly...what are you looking at? Tell me, please." Sly glanced at the fox and then back to the photos, pressing his lips together as he tossed them to her.

She gasped as she saw the photos of her inside her apartment, inching towards Dorian as she shed her clothing. Her cheeks burned cheery red as she flipped through each one. "How long Carmelita?" Sly growled, "How long have you been playing around with Dorian? Because these photos are dated three months ago... right after I left for my final job."

"What the hell are you talking about, Cooper!?" She yelled back at him before looking back at the photos. She immediately turned towards Scarlet, "You miserable _punta_!"

Scarlet just grinned. "What? Hate having your little secret found out? Angry that I do a little recon on my targets a couple months before my job? To be honest, I was surprised to see how taken you were with your partner, especially since you just met him and all...but you took to him like a fly to honey."

"You doctored these, you bitch!" Carmelita snarled, placing her stance towards the other vixen; her tail swishing back and forth.

"Doctored!? Doctored!? I may be a killer Mrs. Fox, but I have a little pride. I may steal and kill, but I do not lie...especially when it comes to my job. I am a...what you would call a professional...something that you apparently were not when that ocelot walked through your doors." The killer relaxed her stance and tucked one arm underneath her breasts and propped her elbow up on her other arm.

Both Sly and Indigo couldn't help but find their eyes beginning to roam towards her chest for a moment. "Besides," she continued. "I took those pictures with a Polaroid camera from the 1970's. You can't doctor that kinda shit, honey. And I admit I don't have the technical skills to operate a phone from ten years ago, let alone take apart a camera that is no longer in service, and no longer has manuals for."

"You liar, you bitch! You...you soul sucking filth, I'll rip that tongue right from your mouth before you can slide it down another man's throat, you gutless old crone!" Scarlet's ears became fully erect until they pressed against her head, the fur of her body bristled as her vision filled with red hot wrath. Her eyes opened wide as an onslaught of Spanish curses filled her ears until Carmelita ended with an earth shattering growl.

"What...what did you just call me?! Why you dry, flat chested harlot," Scarlet pulled out a knife from the confines of her coat and twirled it in her paws. "I'll tear you to pieces!" Carmelita threw caution to the wind as she sprinted straight towards the vixen and tackled her, sending the two women through a window to tumble into the warehouse, landing hard on a lumpy old mattress as a shower of glass rained down on them. Carmelita was quick as she leapt onto her feet and slammed her heel into Scarlet's paw, kicking the knife away as she swung around to connect her foot into the assassin's nose.

Still standing on the roof of the warehouse, both men glanced out the shattered window as the two vixens slashed at one another with claws and slammed their fists into each other. Sly shook his head and chuckled as he leaned back. "Women...am I right?" Blue looked to the raccoon and gave a smirk.

"I know exactly what you mean." The two animals shared a chuckle as it soon died down, leaving the two to stare at one another for a moment. Blue then reached behind him and quickly pulled out his gun, blasting a shot towards the raccoon who vaulted over the malamute. "So it begins," the dog sighed as he spat out his cigarette and ground it into dust by the bottom of his shoe. Sly landed on his feet and brandished the broadside of his cane as he gestured for Blue to continue.

The dog smirked to the raccoon's enthusiasm and gave a gentlemanly bow. "A duel for the ages..." The whistling shots from his silenced pistol were deflected by the metal hook of Sly's cane as Blue took a step forward with each shot fired. As the dog was in spitting distance of the thief, his gun clicked dry as it was smacked out of his paw by Sly's cane, the hook coiling around the assassin's ankle and pulled out from under him. Sly brought it down like an executioner's axe, but was blocked as Blue crossed his arms, absorbing the blunt of the blow as he twirled his legs around to both catch Sly with a few spinning kicks and to also swing himself back onto his feet.

Sly somersaulted away from the malamute as he regained his footing. Sly smirked as he found his opponent without a weapon. Charging, he swung his cane horizontally to catch the dog in the midsection. However, the blow didn't connect with soft flesh, but with hard metal as Blue slid a small retractable club from his sleeve. The metal slammed against wood in a loud _thunk_ as Blue twirled it around like a baton and brandished it.

"Come, this should be interesting." Blue placed his footing on the ground as if he would be unmoved by any force; firm and steady with the concrete beneath him. Surprisingly, his dress coat still hung onto his shoulders despite the slight breeze and his erratic movements. Each combatant feigned and parried as they swung their blunt objects against one another. A few solid blows landed on one another as their bodies began to ache.

As they batted each other around for a moment longer, Blue connected his knee to Sly's gut and tore his coat away from his body, the fabric flowing away as it landed in a heap on the ground. Cooper's eyes grew and drew back as he got a clear view of what the coat was concealing. A few grenades slightly swung on their straps as Blue pulled one from his belt and tossed them towards the raccoon. Sly leapt back and took cover from the ventilation system that jutted out the top of the building. A colorless gas flowed from the metal casing as Sly quirked a brow as it had no negative effects to him. Then he smelt it. "Kerosene!?"

The raccoon then saw Blue light up a cigarette and give a few good puffs before he placed it between his fingers. "Oh, you mind if I smoke?" Sly frowned and brandished his cane, looking wearily at the grenade, praying that the winds would blow away from him; and take the gas with it. "You know...you look like the kind of man who takes himself way too seriously. You need to relax, enjoy life...maybe lighten up."

His prayer went unanswered as a soft wind pushed the colorless gas towards the Master Thief, andBlue then flicked the cigarette**, **letting it soar through the air. Sly's eyes grew big as the glowing tip of the burning tobacco bounced against the ground, erupting in a torrent of flames. The grenade wasn't a dud after all; instead it filled the area around the raccoon with flammable gas. The fire burst forth, nearly engulfing the whole roof excluding where Blue was standing.

Sly leapt away from the flames and over the side of the building, using his hook to grab the metal railing and grabbing the very tip of the handle as flames erupted and flowed off of the roof; the raccoon escaping the fiery inferno. The heat of the blast was intense, some of his fur and clothing were singed, and despite the mild pain radiating from his paws, he managed to pull himself up from the railing and over the edge; planting his feet firmly on the now blackened concrete.

"Nice fire show, you could make big money working at children's birthday parties." He chuckled, pulling off his hat to examine it and the cane. The gold hook, along with the exposed parts of the cane, was caked with soot, and his cap was singed; the blue fabric fused together by the intense heat. He smiled and used the inside of the cap to clean the hook and polished wood off, surprised to find that the golden symbol of the Cooper clan was noticeably cleaner. "You know, I spent hours polishing this cane….but you made the hook brand new," He grinned and waved around the gleaming metal, "Thanks pal, you saved me a risky trip to the jeweler shop."

Indigo's hackles rose as his anger started to boil, but with a deep breath he calmed himself and he smirked. "Always happy to help out a fellow law-breaker…but…" He reached behind his back and pulled out a Springfield XD9, a laser sight built into the grip of the 9mm handgun danced along the raccoon's chest. "It's been fun, but I feel like ending the games." He pulled the trigger three times, the recoil-absorbing design the sporting handgun made his aim drift very little.

However it didn't do him much good as Sly had stepped to the side and started running, tail following behind him as he used Matthew de la Coopeur's time slowing technique to increase his odds of surviving the accurate fire of the malamute. He heard Blue's voice, slowly shouting curses and threats as time returned to its proper pace. Blue replaced his gun back as he retained a few spare bullets in the cartridge for future use. "Very well," he sighed. "If you insist on playing hide and seek with me. I guess I'll just have to play along and seek."

Sly's eyes widened and his ears twitched to the metal _thunk_ as a cylindrical shaped object bounced and tumbled, the small capsule rolling towards him. The grenade gave a quick jerk as a pin was ejected from it and a thick grey smoke bubbled out from the top. The trick worked as Sly ran from his cover and rolled forward to dodge the blasts from Blue's sweeping gun fire. The dog held his pistol to the side as it allowed the bullets to curve to the left as he shot towards the raccoon, ejecting the empty clip and sliding in a fresh one; the receiver sliding shut with a satisfying _clack_ as a bullet was loaded into the chamber. Soon a slight wind blew away the smog and Blue found himself staring at empty space.

His brows rose in slight surprise as it appeared the raccoon had vanished completely. He walked slowly, softly planting his feet as he took one step forward after another, panning his gaze from left to right. A subtle sound from behind him caused his ears to perk and he quickly swung around. The hook of Sly's cane wrapped around the malamute's forearm as he knocked the pistol from Blue's paw, causing the firearm to skid across the roof until it slipped off the edge. Blue then flicked his wrist and pulled out the small collapsible nightstick from his sleeve, attempting to swing it and bludgeon the raccoon's head.

Sly had other plans. With his free paw, he grasped the swinging club, his paw burning with pain as the club slammed into his open palm. Bringing his knee into the dog's stomach, Blue twitched to the pain and loosened his grip, allowing Sly to tear the club from his paw and toss it, sending the thick steel club to fall through the shattered window where Carmelita and Scarlet threw through.

* * *

A sharp yelp was heard as Carmelita was elbowed in the stomach, breaking her headlock on Scarlet as they both turned back against one another. The assassin put up her paws and held them in front of her as she planted her feet, panting slightly as the beginning of a dark purple bruise began forming by her left eye. Carmelita clutched her left arm under her shoulder as a section of her jacket was ripped open, covering the trickling cut that marred her arm. For a moment they stared at one another, their ears perking to the ruckus happening atop the roof they fought under. "Seems our boys are having quite a time up there," Scarlet chuckled in-between breaths. "How unfortunate it is that I didn't get to spend more quality time with Sly."

"You'll not lay a finger on him," Carmelita growled, her ears pinning back. "You who would threaten his life, I doubt he'll be so accepting to have you."

"That's his choice. But after seeing his reaction to your little photo shoot, I don't see true love blossoming between you anytime soon." Scarlet smiled as she lightly placed her feet against the ground, slowly circling around as Carmelita did the same.

"You whore, those pictures are frauds! I don't know how you managed it, but mark my words; Sly will not be leaving with you!"

"My, aren't you the confident one of winning back the raccoon's heart? This coming from a woman who wears combat boots**?**" Carmelita twitched to the insult and glanced down at her footwear. "They look quite nice though when polished properly. Tell me, do they come in women's sizes?" Carmelita was about to charge until an object flying through the air caught her attention. Scarlet glanced up to see what the vixen was looking at as a steel club clattered to the floor right in-between them.

Both fox's looked at the nightstick, then back at one another. "Go on...go for it," Carmelita chided. "Let's see what happens." Scarlet glanced at the baton for a moment, contemplating her plan of action. Both women then lashed forward, diving for the club and tackling into each other.

They grappled for the retractable club, Carmelita swinging back her leg. "From here, you can get an excellent view of my foot!" With that, she rammed her leather sole into Scarlet's nose, causing the woman to yelp in pain as she jammed her knuckles into the side of Carmelita's thigh, striking a pressure point and crippling the officer's leg momentarily. Growling, she grasped the assassin by her head and slammed her forehead into her snout, delivering another shot of pain into the vixen's nose.

Scarlet placed her paw in front of Carmelita, attempting to push her away as she glanced at the club by her and stretched her free arm in an attempt to grab it. Carmelita opened her mouth wide and brought down her fangs to sink into Scarlet's paw, causing her to yelp as she reached back and gave a vicious left hook, her knuckles scrapping off against Carmelita's jaw. Diving, she clutched the nightstick in her bright red paws and quickly sprang to her feet, wincing to the sting as she saw blood trickling out of bite marks. Both women stared at one another again, Carmelita wiping the blood that stuck to her lips. Scarlet charged, her bushy red tail flailing behind her as she sprinted and swung the club. Carmelita jumped back, the tip of the club grazing against her stomach as she stepped back.

The red and orange vixen continued to strafe from left to right as Scarlet took wide, heavy swipes at her. She then feigned a swing and caught Carmelita off guard, landing a solid blow on her torso while she was open to attack. Grunting, she shook off the strike and dodged another swing, grasping Scarlet's arm as she was left open and following up with a fierce uppercut to the killer's jaw. The blazing red fox drew back as her world began spiraling around her, stumbling in disorientation before shaking her head clear. Carmelita staggered from exhaustion as she followed up by putting her entire weight into her arm as she shot her fist forward, her knuckles connecting to the side of Scarlet's face.

The vixen fell to the floor and breathed a growling sigh as she pushed herself off the floor, stumbling as her head throbbed. Taking another wobbling step forward, Carmelita threw a punch at Scarlet once more and forced the wind from her lungs. Burying her paw into the killer's stomach, Carmelita leaned back and followed up with another uppercut, knocking the red and white vixen onto the flat of her back once more. Carmelita panted violently until she suddenly felt dizzy and collapsed to the floor. Scarlet coughed and spat out a glob of red to stain the floor by her mouth.

Carmelita stared up at the ceiling and panted, her chest rising and falling uncontrollably. Moving her fingers, Scarlet wrapped her paw around the collapsible steel nightstick and attempted to stand once more. Slowly moving towards the vixen on the floor, she rolled her shoulders forward and gripped the handle of her weapon. Carmelita glanced ahead and kicked her legs out, flipping back up onto her feet as she tightened her fingers into fists. Staring at one another, the only true sound was their own loud breathing echoing through the walls.

"Give...up...yet?" Carmelita said between breaths. Scarlet gave a weak smile as she parted her lips and licked the blood that stained her teeth.

"I'm...just getting...warmed up." Staggering forward, she caught herself with wobbling legs and she raised her head to stare back at her opponent. "You...ready?" Carmelita gave a pause until slowly nodding her head.

"Come on...come at me."

* * *

Blue back flipped and rolled his wrists forward, springing forth two small black steeled revolvers from within his sleeves. The pistols drifted into his open paws and he leaned around the corner of his cover and fired. Sly dodged, strafing left and right as he flipped through the air, a stray bullet grazing his left ear and taking with it a few strands of fur and flesh. He winced but was far to focused to worry if he still had an ear on the left side of his head as he sprinted forward. Vaulting over the silver air vent that jutted from the roof, Sly landed in front of Blue and knocked one of the guns from his paw.

Anticipating the dog's next move, Sly deflected the bullet Blue shot towards him and followed up with a knee to the gut, causing Indigo to stagger forward, clutching his midsection. As he was hunched over, Sly threw his cane upward and caught the hook on Blue's jaw, upper cutting the dog and sending him reeling back to land hard on his backside. Sly reached to the tip of his ear and winced as sticky blood dotted his gloved fingers. He climbed over the vent and walked towards the dog that lay on the ground, glancing at the light that shown through the shattered window from where Carmelita and Scarlet made their exit. He then caught himself glued to the scene he saw transpiring a good distance below him.

Scarlet and Carmelita slowly encircled one another as Carmelita went on the defensive, dodging swipes of an all too familiar nightstick. A few blows struck her and Sly couldn't control his impulse any longer. Leaving Blue, he stormed down the flights of stairs and ran into the warehouse, vaulting over guard rails and kicking open doors. AS he jumped over the scaffolding, he landed on two solid feet, bending his knees so that his legs absorbed the shock as he ran over and clutched Scarlet's wrist before she delivered a fierce blow to Carmelita's head. "No!"

Scarlet glanced over her shoulder and gasped as Sly shouted, struggling to free her arm. "Stop this, Scarlet! I won't let you kill her!" As the two were distracted, Carmelita searched frantically for the knife that Scarlet pulled on her during the beginning of their duel. Reaching into a pile of garden hoses, she withdrew the blade and charged at Scarlet whose gaze was still drawn to Sly's. Sly saw Carmelita charge and stepped in front of the red and white vixen, grabbing Carmelita wrist as well and holding the two females away from one another. "I said enough!"

"Why are you defending her, Sly? This woman's trying to kill us, what in the world is going through your head to think it is a good idea to spare this... this…_demoness_' life?"

"Can it, Carmelita! We will talk later; we have a lot to discuss after this." The vixen's ears flattened to the anger in the raccoon's voice and she remained silent. Turning back to Scarlet, he drew in a breath and began speaking again. "I won't allow either of you to rip each other to pieces, this has to stop! I promise you, Scarlet. If you and Blue leave us be and never show yourselves in Paris again...all four of us will leave with our lives."

Scarlet drew her brows together in a blood curdling glare as she bore her gaze into Sly's. As this was going on, Blue grunted as he stepped down the stairs and pressed his back against the concrete wall that encased the staircase. Hearing the voices on the other side, he gritted his teeth and blew hot breath from between his fangs in anger. Clicking back the hammer of his concealable pistol, he leaned around the corner and leveled his paw to point towards the raccoon's head. "Say hello to Lucifer for me, you bastard."

"Scarlet, you and Blue have nothing. This Colonel, the man you work for, you've failed him once before. I've seen the byproduct of failing him, and he is not the one to give second chances. He's going to kill you and your partner, I just know it. If you leave now and run from this country, maybe flee to the U.S. and avoid all of this, you'll live to see another day. But if you stay, you run the risk of failure and end your life in the process."

Blue hesitated for a moment as he listened intently to what the raccoon had to speak of. Already knowing the truth of Colonel's intentions, he finally realized the proper plan of action. Tilting his paw slightly to the left, he fired off a shot and purposely missed Sly's head all together. The thief grabbed Carmelita and dove for cover as Blue raced out and pulled Scarlet back. Sly and Carmelita glanced over the crates they hid behind and then back at one another.

"Sly, those photos Scarlet showed you on the rooftop, they were doctored. She took those recently, saying that they were from three months ago is complete bullshit." Sly glanced at the fox for a moment until looking over the box's edge to see what was happening.

"We will talk about this later, Carmelita. These two aren't just here to kill us for money; they're making things personal between us." The vixen glanced at Sly's blood caked ear and frowned slightly, raising her paw towards the injured ear to inspect it more thoroughly. Sly winced as she gently touched it and drew away.

"I'll keep Scarlet preoccupied..." she glanced over the crates and then back to Sly. "Be careful, he will most likely use a panic inducing gas on you. He keeps a gas sprayer under his right wrist, if he manages to spray you, try not to breathe it in."

"Carmelita..." Sly said. The vixen looked at him with tired brown irises. "Promise me you won't kill one another. She doesn't deserve death, no matter how you may view her. There is still something in her trying to get out, something good."

"Fine...you have my word. But if the situation calls for it...I won't hesitate to kill her. Only from self defense purposes, I promise. It isn't the way on an officer to take a life for settling personal vendettas."

"I understand. Just be careful." Looking back, he clutched his cane and tugged on the brim of his hat, pulling down the brim to conceal his eyes as a deep frown marred his face. "I'll be back in a minute." Vaulting over his cover, he watched Carmelita depart into another section of the warehouse as he rolled his shoulders and waited. Tapping the end of his cane against the floor, the _clunk _of the wood tip reverberated off the walls as Sly waited patiently.

A deep frown etched on his face as his brows came together in a hard glare from under the brim of his cap, his ears perking up and his tapping stopped as he heard footsteps. Indigo Blue walked with a slight stagger as a small cut dribbled red down the side of his jaw. His expression was hard as well as Sly's, clutching the grip of his pistol hard as his fists shook. Licking his lips, he sighed and began speaking. "What do you fight for, Cooper?"

The question took only a second for Sly to answer, he already knowing it since the day he was born. "My past...and my future," he stated, his ears flattened against his head as he glanced up, glaring from under the brim of his hat. "And you, Indigo? What is it you fight for?" Blue blinked at this, no one had ever really asked him that, nor did he ever think on the subject. For as long as he could remember, he drew a bloody swath of murders, deceit, and money, thoroughly enjoying himself as he did it. Only once did he ever stop and actually witness what he had done, finding himself a committer of an uncountable number of sins.

He was already destined for Hell, so he decided to continue his career, already damning himself with which there was no returning to. After considerable thought, Blue glanced up from the floor and looked towards the raccoon. "I fight because I have nothing else. All I've ever known or have ever been good at is conflict, so I might as well enjoy it while I can."

"Monster..." Cooper growled softly. Blue narrowed his eyes and twitched the side of his lip.

"No, Mr. Cooper, monsters killed over five million of the Jewish people in World War II. Monsters created the atom bomb and obliterated two entire cities filled with innocent lives. Monsters broke the necks of hundreds of falsely accused prisoners in the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. What I am is nothing like a monster, but it was monsters that made me what I am today." Blue clenched his free paw and dug his claws into the palm.

"It's monsters, Mr. Cooper; it's monsters that created the great grand world we live in today. A world of war and suffering and injustice, a world I wanted no part of, but had no choice. So I kill these monsters for profit. Drug dealers, kingpins, rapists, serial killers, dictators, warlords, these things I manipulate and kill for crossing me and what my employer stands for. And with each one that dies, this world is one step closer to what my employer envisioned the world to be. In essence, Mr. Cooper...it is you who are the monster, and I who must eliminate."

Sly snorted as he shifted himself to a more relaxed stance. "Well then…I guess you and I aren't so different. You call me a monster, and I call you a monster. You kill the killers, and I steal from the thieves and give the artifacts to where they rightfully belong. Take the famous Fire Stone of India caper for example."

Sly started to pace around the room, taking calculated steps; always keeping himself within jumping distance of cover. "When I stole the Fire Stone of India, I took it from some fat cat's personal safe and placed it in the Indian Nation Museum, and managed to give the police sufficient evidence to find out that he hired a group of thugs to steal the great ruby more than fifty years ago and incarcerate him."

The thief tipped his hat at the malamute, "Aside from the killing, you and I are very similar. I throw the thieves into jail and you bury them six feet under. Really," He chuckled, albeit nervously, "You and I are doing the jobs no one else can, or no one else would want to…we are really going above the law and doing the people a public service. We take the fall for society and give all of the credit to those who stand in the lime light. Take myself and Carmelita for example, I steal from the criminals, fight the criminals, defeat the criminals, and Ms. Fox comes in, expecting to find me…but she finds a nice surprise to tide her over until the day comes that I let myself get caught."

"Enough of this," Blue halted Cooper with a raised paw. "We are not the same; you are cut off from what this world really is, while I see the truth of it all. You didn't have to endure what I had to. You come from a long line of prestigious, wealthy thieves. A former pharaoh, a ninja under the order of a Japanese emperor, a sultan of India, the captain of an infamous trading ship, a chivalrous knight, a former sheriff of the old west, a mechanical genius who flew the skies against the Red Baron, a wealthy entrepreneur, and your father...quite a man of many talents he was."

Sly narrowed his gaze as he tightened his grip around the shaft of his cane. "What do you know about my father?" Blue simply chuckled darkly as he pulled back the hammer of his small firearm and pointed it towards the raccoon.

"Why don't you ask him yourself? I'll send you to him before this night is over." Sly spread his feet as he spotted out of his peripheral vision any advantages against his foe. Licking his lips, he tensed up his body and locked it into place, waiting for the slightest hint that he was in danger so that he would spring into action in a second. Blue raised his brows and chuckled once more. "My goodness, I've been having so much fun that I forgot to officially introduce myself."

The raccoon watched the dog's movements carefully as Blue gave a bow with a roll of his wrist in greeting. "My name is Indigo Blue, and I will be your executioner this evening."


	19. Until he Left

**Chapter 19**

**Until he Left**

(Line tool broken)

**S**weat beaded on almost every inch of his body. His breath was as hot as fire and came out quick and erratic. His legs burned and tightened as the fibers and muscles pulled and wrapped around one another like a braid made of tissues and veins. Sly coughed and clutched his side as a sharp pain stabbed at him, collapsing to his knees and gagging as saliva laced with a small amount of blood dribbled on the floor. Blue gave a weak chuckle until he collapsed to his knees as well, holding himself up with his free paw as his other shook violently with the warm leather of the pistol's grip biting into the palm of his paw.

Sly looked up from the floor and saw as Blue focused his grip and leveled the gun barrel with Cooper's forehead. The raccoon sucked in a breath as Blue chuckled and pulled the trigger. The dog's smile was soon wiped from his face as he heard a soft click from the gun. Pulling the trigger again, another empty click echoed off the walls of their makeshift arena. Blue growled and barred his teeth as he tossed the empty firearm away and rolled back the sleeve of his right arm.

A small cylinder shaped object was strapped to his wrist, a small rubber tube running from the object down to a small canister strapped to his belt on his left hip. Sly's eyes grew as a match was struck and the flame flared in the dog's paw, bringing the tip of the burning wood against the opening of the wrist device. A soft click, followed by a strong spray of gas shot from the wrist sprayer, the flame of the match igniting the gas and producing a geyser of flame to shoot forward and at the raccoon. Lifting himself by his cane, Sly vaulted over the flames as the tendrils of fire lashed at his back and he narrowly evaded the roaring stream of intense heat. Skidding, he dropped to the floor and rolled around frantically to snuff out the flames that crackled and ate away the fabric of his sweater's back.

"Quick...you're quick," Blue huffed. "But even you must get tired, and I've got plenty of fuel left."

"What about matches?" Sly's retort caused the canine to pause as he flipped open the small box of matches, seeing a single stick staring back at him. Gritting his fangs, he growled and struck the match.

"Then I'll just have to make this one count." Chuckling weakly, he squeezed the trigger and the gas shot forth, erupting in a torrent of flame as it was ignited. Charring the concrete from where Sly originally was, Blue swept the geyser of flame so that the trail of burning light followed after the sprinting raccoon. The heat was intense, the flames sucking away all the oxygen in the room as Sly began to grow tired. His body ached for a fresh lungful of air but the flames quickly consumed all that was nearby.

A glob of fire jumped from the larger body and landed on Sly's arm, quickly charring the sleeve of his sweater and trailing up to his shoulder. His blood being injected with adrenaline, Sly jumped through the flames and rolled past the majority of the torrent as he patted his arms and rolled across the floor. The fires soon died as all the oxygen was consumed, the flames unable to sustain its existence from within the solid concrete walls of the warehouse. The stream of fuel died down until a few drops dribbled from the end of the sprayer tied to Blue's arm. The dog collapsed as the lack of air made him light headed and his face met the floor.

The warm floor began to grow colder as the fires went away, leaving black marks across the surface as a reminder to their previous audience. Sly lay on his stomach as trails of smoke drifted upward from his back and shoulders. His sweater was a patchwork nightmare of holes and torn fibers as it seemed only strings were keeping it from falling apart on his body. The fabric that covered his shoulders and his left arm were completely gone, the back resembling Swiss cheese with holes marring it on every inch. What he would do for a glass of water right about now.

His tongue was caked with smoke and grime as the flesh under his grey fur burned and stung from the intense heat. As he drew in a fresh breath, he pushed himself off the floor and into a sitting position as he regained his breath. Looking at Blue lying on the floor, he fanned his face with his cap. "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to play with fire?" Blue laughed from his spot on the floor, his body jerking with the violent shaking caused by his laughter.

"I guess it's true that the beautiful women love a man with a sense of humor." He drew in a breath and continued laughing. "How else would Miss Fox still be holding out for you all this time?"

"Who's to say she is?"

"What's this? Does our brave and valiant hero despair from the knowledge my Scarlet has given you?" Sly simply looked at the floor, thinking better to not look straight at the canine. "That look," Blue spoke, causing Sly to look up. "I know that look. Its looks like that that makes life worth living. That look in your eyes, on your face, that is the same look I see on all the faces of every man Scarlet has slain. A look of sheer regret and despair, a hollowed look, the look of a corpse, that's what you're reduced to, Cooper. You have the look of a dead man; your body will soon follow."

Sly attempted to stand by pushing off with his cane, yet all he could do is cling to the shaft and support his upper body as fatigue reduced his legs to useless piles of meat. Blue grunted as he moved his arms and tried to push off the floor, clutching something on his chest and pulling it off. Sly watch as Blue chucked a small object that slowly rolled across the floor and stopped, resting against the pole of Sly's cane. The last Cooper's eyes grew large as he heard a soft beeping from the canister, a sharp _clink_ and a metal pin ejecting from the container. A grey smoke bellowed from the canister and wafted up into Sly's eyes and nostrils, the small particles getting sucked into Sly's body and clinging to his moist insides.

He suddenly felt cold, his body feeling strange and foreboding as he collapsed to the floor and coughed. Blue chuckled as he pushed off the floor, grinning at the small object on the floor next to him. Seeing his collapsible nightstick sitting comfortably on the floor next to him, he glowed with confidence as it returned to his open palm, the studded handle biting into his palm as he tightened his grip on it. Sly's vision became distorted and dark, all light sources were washed out and greyed as the walls began dribbling down like it was composed of wet paint sliding down a damp paper. No colors, all except grey and black as everything was washed out and scratchy.

The texture of his surroundings reminded him of being drawn and roughly sketched on paper by a lead pencil and splashed with ink as the dark shadows pooled and bubbled like puddles of tar, seeping down the walls slowly. "Do you like it?" Blue's voice carried an otherworldly tone as it echoed and stung at Sly's ears, causing him to flatten them against his head. He soon realized his hat was no longer on his head as he saw it sitting across from him on the floor, the bright blue fabric washed out and reduced to a dull grey. "It's what made me famous. First you will feel a sudden drop in body temperature, you've already felt that I've witnessed. Next will be tunneled and distorted vision, color blindness, coupled with sudden painful hallucination and weakened hand-eye-coordination. After your body has gone through sever psychological trauma, your body will go into paralyzes until your heart eventually stops."

Sly then was attacked as spasms of painful sensations crawled across his body, along with painful visions that he only thought appeared in nightmares. The concrete underneath him began slowly swirling around and melting as it liquidized, his paws sinking into the grey goop slowly as it sucked on his fingers. Pulling his paws free, he stood up and stumbled back, falling hard on the floor on his back. This must have been loss of hand-eye-coordination as he felt like a toddler learning to walk for the very first time. Not a sign of Blue to be seen, yet he could hear the footsteps squelching against the sticky, syrupy mess that was the once solid concrete floor.

Another spasm as cracks appeared in the wall, opening wide like mouths as they bellowed and roared at him, spewing plumes of blue fire as they gnashed their razor sharp teeth. Sly collapsed to the floor once more and clutched the sides of his head as he yelled and screamed, thrashing around as he saw visions of his past. His father's cold blooded murder in the dead of night by Clockwerk's steel claws as he heard his mother's echoing screams. A long shadow shrouded him as he looked up at the imposing figure standing over him. A being composed of pure blackness loomed over him, clutched in his formless paw a long, menacing club that seemed to be an extension of his arm.

A pair of glowing blue eyes made of smoking embers spewed a continuous stream of bluish grey smoke as the fiery irises stared into him. A jagged crack appeared along the sides of the being's muzzle as it split apart to form the opening of his mouth, the cracks forming teeth like shattered glass. Inside the gaping mouth were blue tendrils of smoke and fire as they spewed whenever he spoke words. "The great Cooper line...full of those who only took advantage of others. Your family has been a plague on this world for far too long. It's time I finish what the original Clockwerk started."

Raising his club, the shade of Blue tightened his grip on the handle as Sly looked into the glowing blue eyes of the darkened beast. He saw his life playing out in front of him, like two small movie screens, he saw his life through the demon's eyes. How he cowered in fear from the Fiendish Five as they busted through the wood door of his home, his first encounter with Clockwerk atop the volcano all those years ago, his kiss with Carmelita as he slipped the handcuffs around her wrist. He saw his friends; he saw Guru, Dimitri, Penelope, Panda King, McSweeny, his mother, his father, and finally Carmelita. Watching the dark club loom over his head, he slowly closed his eyes and let the breath hiss from his nostrils, waiting as the steel baton cracked open his skull.

(Line tool broken)

Carmelita stepped lightly, her eyes darting from left to right as her ears twitched to even the slightest sounds. A sharp creak and Scarlet fell from the rafters above the vixen, shooting her foot out to kick Carmelita to the floor as the assassin landed. Wrapping her forearms around the officer's neck, Carmelita gripped around her neck to tear Scarlet's arms away. Wrapping around her neck like a snake, her vision blurred until she brought her elbow into the other fox's gut and flipping her over her back. Scarlet quickly sprang back up and wobbled slightly, bringing her fists up along with Carmelita who regained her footing.

They were both exhausted beyond belief, their bodies running on pure adrenaline and the primal instinct of survival. They both ran towards each other, crashing into themselves like two freight trains. Thrashing, they grappled in close proximity as fists, legs, claws, and teeth slashed and slammed into one another. Jumping away, they separated and circled around one another before crashing into each other again. There was no room for elegance or finesse anymore, just pure, unbridled tooth and nail fighting as old as the dawn of time.

A heavy fist slammed into Scarlet's face and she staggered back, her world a carousel of pain and heat. Carmelita scraped her knuckles against the fox's teeth, small driblets of blood trickling down her fingers. As Scarlet shook her head, Carmelita came up and delivered a fierce uppercut, followed by another left hook, snapping Scarlet's head violently to the left and then to the right as Carmelita punched with her right. As Carmelita finished her series of punches, Scarlet calmly moved her head back so that she faced forward, looking unfazed by the blows. A trickle of blood poured from her lips and nose as she began slowly leaning back, falling to the floor in a slump.

Carmelita sighed and stood for a moment, lowering her arms to her sides until she too leaned back and fell to the floor. The cold cement cooled the back of her throbbing head as she looked up toward the ceiling. She took this time to reflect on what had transpired up to this point in time. A strange time to be thinking about one's history, yet it was something she couldn't control. What a life she had lived.

Becoming an officer at such a young age and being established as a strong, confident, and intimidating woman. Yet she was still a woman, and being a woman, she still held the same characteristics as all others. The need for someone's love burned within her like liquid fire within the blood of her veins. Most men were either frightened from her, or looked at her as a piece of meat. Not many had seen her more feminine side, always seeing the strong, law abiding, criminal huntress.

But Sly...he was unique. He was something different, something special, which was probably the reason she adored him and yet hated him so. She wanted to punch him and crack him to pieces, yet at the same time she wanted to wrap her arms around him and smother him with the love and affection that was locked away within her. A cold iron lock shackled her heart, and Sly was the one who picked it open and stole it from her, setting her free. Until he left.

Everything was perfect until he left. She had him off the streets causing crimes around the world, until he left. She had him with her; wherever she went he followed, until he left. She shared her bed with him, snuggling up to his warm body and sharing the sunrise for too many mornings for her to count for that one magical year they spent together...until he left. Tears welled up in her eyes, causing her to blink them from her irises and let the drop down the sides of her head, the icy trails they left tickled the temples on her head.

Everything was gold and grand before he left, yet how she acted after that horrid night didn't improve anything. Looking back, she hated herself for how she treated him, how she treated her coworkers, how she treated the chief. And even Dorian, toying with his heart the way Sly toyed with hers. It was as if she woke up after years of sleeping, finally seeing what she wanted and seeing what she needed. What she wanted was to change Sly, but by doing that, she drove him away.

And what she needed was Sly, unchanged, untamed, and pure. She attempted to sit up, pushing her back from the floor. Twitching her ears, she heard nothing but the sounds of the world. The wind outside, the Earth as it slowly drifted through space on its orbital track was what filled her ears. She then knew what she had to do, she finally understood.

She needed Sly and Sly needed her, for once she would have to simply accept it. Fate was cruel for putting them on opposite sides of the law and the world's black and white views of what is considered good and what is considered evil. But perhaps that was what made their bond to strong for one another. One positive and one negative naturally attracted to the other. The alpha and the omega.

Grunting, she pushed off the floor in search for who she desired. She wanted away from all this, all this madness. Planting her feet firmly on the ground, she attempted to walk as she began her search for Sly.

(Line tool broken)

Sly closed his eyes, his mind calculating to its best ability while under the influence of Blue's toxin. He heard the whistling wind as the club was brought down in a hammering motion towards where his neck connected to his head. Time slowed to a crawl as he relaxed his body, stopping time with the thief's reflexes. Keeping his eyes closed, he melted into shadow as his body became concealed from view with the help of Sly's first ancestor, Slytankhamen II and his ability of becoming invisible. Kicking his leg out, he balanced on his paws as he lifted his body off the floor slightly and spun, sweeping his leg around in a circle until it connected with Blue's ankle, knocking him to the ground.

These abilities, when combined created an effective style of defensive fighting. Developed by the only Cooper ancestor who had never committed a single heist, but focused his abilities in redefining the Thevious Raccoonus to what it is today. James Fennimore Cooper, a historian and cousin to "Tennessee Kid" Cooper had recorded and written down every known and unknown aspect of every Cooper up to his time, living long enough to document as far as Thaddeus Winslow Cooper, the great grandfather of Sly. With his trek across the world in search for information on his family name, he came to follow Rioichi Cooper's works, being fascinated in Feudal Japan and the shadowy aspects of the ninja and the art of Shinobi. Following Rioichi's path, he found himself in a temple of Shaolin monks.

Rioichi was the crafty one as he boarded a ship to China, evading the wrath of his Emperor after taking a fair maiden as his bride and breaking the vows he had stood by. In the temple, James Fennimore Cooper had spent three years, learning from their customs and techniques as well as from the history his ancestor left behind. Soon developing his trademark technique during an initiation into the temple, he as well as the other students was given a hallucinogenic drug, dulling the senses as their abilities were tested under the harsh conditions. He had passed the test, only by developing this particular fighting style. A fighting style he had dubbed spirit walk.

By combining the style of Matthew De La Cooper's thief reflexes and Slytankhamen's invisibility, he was able to remain undetected to gain bearings of his surroundings while slowing down the world around him to better listen to the sounds around him more accurately. Now the spirit walk would finally be used again, after all these years. Blue stumbled as his club smacked against the concrete floor, seeing that Sly had faded out of existence. Glancing around, he saw nothing and slowly skulked around the area, brandishing his club. Sly was in fact, only inches away from the canine, able to hear the beating of the dog's heart, his ragged breathing, and his footfalls against the floor.

Not being able to trust his eyes because of the hallucinogen administered by the famous "Indigo Assassin", he no longer used them as he shot his cane out to connect with Blue's jaw. The dog stumbled as he was hit from out of nowhere, seeing Sly standing right in front of him before the raccoon disappeared once more. Sly stepped lightly and kept his breathing normal so he could listen more carefully. Swinging his cane, he hooked it around Blue's neck and spun him around until bringing him into the ground, melting back into the surroundings. Now Blue was easier to hear, his heart beating like a jackhammer as his breath continuously flowed from his parted lips.

A sudden spasm of pain shot through Cooper, forcing him to open his eyes and horrid images of monsters and nightmares followed by past memories attacked him. Blue smacked his club against Cooper's stomach and kicked him down to the floor as the raccoon thrashed and clutched his head to the pain of the hallucinations. Seeing Blue as the dark wraith with glowing blue embers for eyes, Sly slowly crawled back from him. "Cute," Blue chided. "But you're out of tricks."

A loud blast focused both animals' attention to their left as a glob of glowing energy slammed into the cold steel of Blue's nightstick. The club acted as a conductor, the electricity of the blast traveling down his body and electrocuting him into submission. He twitched as tendrils of energy wrapped around him, zapping and sputtering until the force flung him out the window of the warehouse. Sly sighed as he glanced up and saw the shadowed outline of a feminine figure, a long bushy tail flowing behind her as she limped towards Sly. Crashing to her knees, Sly smelt the scent that could only belong to Carmelita as she clutched her smoking shock pistol in her paw.

Bringing a paw to his face, Carmelita's fingers frolicked through the fur on his cheek. Sly only saw a dark outline of her as everything else was grey and washed out. Her voice was enough to make up for not being able to see her face. "Sly," she spoke. "Are you alright?"

He gave a soft smile until Carmelita gave a sharp yelp of pain. Looking down, she saw a sharp object protrude from her thigh. The handle of the knife jutted from her leg as she and Sly looked up to see Scarlet leaning against the doorway, blood dripping from her face. Gritting her teeth, her pearl white fangs held a tint of red as the blood stained their white faces. "Damn, I missed...I never miss."

Staggering, she drew another blade seemingly from thin air as she held it in her fingers, attempting to throw this one through the other vixen's head. Sly then glanced through the fog of Blue's toxin. His cap rested next to Scarlet's foot, the vixen oblivious to the cloth even residing there. Grasping his cane, Sly weakly lifted the pole and slammed the end against the floor, a resounding click echoing through the room. With his free paw, he shielded Carmelita's eyes and slammed his shut as an explosion of light and sound hit Scarlet, the epicenter of the blast being Sly's hat.

As Scarlet lost all functions, Carmelita quickly grabbed her shock pistol and switched it to full voltage, overloading the battery and shorting it out as a bright glob of energy shot from the barrel. Slamming into Scarlet, she too flung through the shattered window her partner had just recently soared through. The gun was hot to the touch as it crackled and sputtered, the paint of the barrel bubbling and sizzling from the heat. Sly grunted as he stood up and scooped Carmelita from the floor. The law enforcer of the pair hissed as a searing pain shot up her leg as Sly lifted her. She wrapped her fingers around the handle and paused as Sly spoke to her.

"Leave it in," he warned. "It's too far from a hospital. By the size of the handle, I'd say the blade is pretty big, and knowing Scarlet, the blade's probably serrated."

"Well," she said through her teeth. "What do you suppose I do?" Sly slowly walked out of the warehouse towards the red Mustang parked in the lot. Carmelita turned the keys and unlocked the passenger door for Sly, gently setting the vixen into the cushioned seat. Closing the door, he got into the driver's seat and started the car.

"We'll get you to my place. I have medical supplies there that we can use until we get you to a hospital."

"Not tonight, I'm far too tired for a hospital."

"But Carmelita-

"Shut up and drive, Cooper!" There wasn't time to argue, Sly pressed his foot on the gas and drove back towards the shadowed corners of Paris and into his hideout. Speeding down the street, he glanced at Carmelita's leg as blood began dying the denim of her jeans a deep and dark purple. She couldn't stand it any longer, grabbing the knife, she gritted her teeth and wiggled it out, taking care for the barbs of the knife to not hook onto any arteries or muscle tissue. Sly glanced at the open wound and narrowed his gaze.

He clutched the left sleeve of his sweater and tore away the fabric until his arm was bare. Giving the sleeve to Carmelita, she tied it over the wound and pressed against it, adding pressure to keep the blood from seeping out. "Here," he said. "Come on." Grabbing Carmelita from the car, he slowly walked up the steps towards his hideout.

As the door became closer, both couldn't help but picture themselves walking up to their future home together. The way Sly carried Carmelita up to the door, it reminded himself as newly weds heading towards their home after leaving the church. Aside from being the dead of night with cuts and bruises covering their bodies, it was quite similar. Sly laid Carmelita down on the sofa where her body sank into the cushioned seat. "I'll be right back," he said as he headed into the next room.

As she was left in the dark room, she watched the lights outside of the open window and processed in her mind that she was in fact sitting in the very hideout of the criminal she hunted to the ends of the Earth for. Her ears twitched as Sly returned with a large medical kit in the style of a bulging suitcase. Flipping the case open, he pulled out a cloth and disinfectant as he tore away the pants leg and poured the clear liquid over the wound, the alcohol fizzing and foaming around the edges of the hole; the vixen gritting her teeth as pain spiked into her system. Next, Sly prepared a syringe filled with novocain and slowly eased it into Carmelita's thigh. She gritted her teeth but was otherwise unfazed.

The raccoon then pulled out what looked to be a spray can and shook it a few times before applying an applicator tip. "That Novocain kicked in yet?" he murmured. The vixen nodded and he eased the tip into the wound and pressed down on the button, foam being directly injected into the open wound; the foam expanding and filling the deep cut. "Its something of Bentley's design…he calls it Bio-degradable Non-Toxic Medical Clotting Rapid Expansion foam. It fills the wound and prevents the cut from bleeding any further. I just call it "miracle foam."

Her leg became numb as Sly pulled out a needle and threaded the stitching through, beginning to sew up the flesh of Carmelita's leg. She watched for a moment before looking up at Sly. "So," he said. "Anything you would like to talk about?"

"You mean," Carmelita trailed off as she saw Sly raise his paw and threaded another section of her skin. "You mean about Dorian?"

"For starters," he stated, causing Carmelita to flatten her ears.

"First of all, those photos were tampered with, Sly. I swear to you. I don't know how she did it, but those photos weren't taken months ago. And also, Dorian and I never went all the way. I saw you on the Eiffel Tower with...that woman and I rushed home. I was so angry at you; I thought you and her became lovers.

With Dorian accusing you of being behind all of this, and then seeing that, I was crushed. So I wanted… pay back, but… Dorian stopped me before anything happened. I then realized what was going on. That's the truth of it all, Cooper. Believe what you want."

Sly remained silent as he bit off the remaining string as he finished stitching Carmelita's leg. "Does anything else hurt?" She looked up to the raccoon's face and frowned.

"Let me help you first. Those burns on your back must be painful." Sly nodded and turned his back to Carmelita as she gestured for him to turn around. Slipping off the shredded rags of his sweater, Carmelita broke into the medical kit and poured burn ointment into her paws, rubbing the cream into Sly's back. The raccoon sighed in comfort as he felt the cooling sensation of the cream, coupled with the massaging palms of Carmelita rubbing against his back.

Rubbing more into his shoulders, she lifted his arms to bandage up the cuts and scrapes on his sides. "I'm sorry about your sweater and hat. I know how much they probably mean to you." Sly's ears twitched to Carmelita's words. He shrugged and gave a soft sigh.

"I have more pairs. I had my father's cloths duplicated and kept his original attire untouched inside a plastic sleeve, every once in awhile I slip it on just to smell his and my mother's scent when I miss them, or for special occasion. Good thing I decided against putting it on tonight." Running a paw through his hair, Carmelita moved to sit beside him and hesitated to place a paw on his shoulder.

"I know what you're thinking, but it isn't true. I don't love him, Sly. I already told you this, and I still mean it. So please...stop looking like it's the end of the world and let's see that smirk you always have on your face. Let me see the old Sly I know." The corner of Sly's lip pulled back slightly as he mustered what he could.

He blinked and looked at Carmelita, running a paw through her hair and scratching the back of her head. "I suppose I deserve this. Perhaps this is what you were feeling when I danced with Neyla, using her to try and flush you out. Now that I think on it, I've used you multiple times, not caring what it did to you. I do deserve this."

"To a degree," she said. "But you can stop beating yourself up." Her tail moved to wrap around his waist. "I see Blue's done that enough to you." She inspected the bruises and matted patches of fur and dots of dried blood. Sly frowned as he saw the same on her.

"Carmelita...you're filthy." The fox blinked and stared at him awkwardly for a moment. "Look at you, you look horrible. You need a bath." Sly's grin spread across his face as Carmelita furrowed her brows and glared at him.

"Alright, maybe I don't miss the old you after all."

"You are quite lovely when you're angry. Why else do I push your buttons all the time?"

"Oh, married life with you is going to be so promising," she said sarcastically. Her eyes grew big as she realized what she said and cupped her paws over her mouth, slowly looking back at him. Sly had a big heartfelt grin on his face as Carmelita jabbed a finger and held it in front of his face. "Not one word." Sly raised his paws and said nothing.

"Now then, is anything else bothering you?" Sly asked Carmelita. The vixen pulled off her jacket and exposed a large bruise on her left shoulder.

"It's a bit sore." Sly reached up and gently kneaded the flesh of her shoulder until she pointed down to her forearm. Sly then gently touched the bruise on her arm and moved down to her paw, her soft palm warm and weightless in his grasp. Her exposed stomach bore a large bruise near her left side and Sly brought his paw to rub it tenderly. Stopping, he pulled his paw back until another one grasped it.

"No...don't stop. Please," Carmelita said in a firm, yet pleading tone. Sly nodded and continued massaging the sore areas on her body. He rubbed her exposed leg from where he had to rip the fabric of her jeans away to get to her stab wound. She placed a paw over his that rested on her leg and she glanced up from their paws to his face.

Leaning forward, she placed her free paw behind Sly's head and pushed his face into hers, planting their lips against one another. Sly moved his paws up to run through her hair as they held their lips together for a good few minutes. Breaking away, they both breathed in a lungful of breath as they looked at one another. Licking her lips, Carmelita placed her paws on Sly's shoulders as they rested their foreheads against one another. Sly stood up and lifted Carmelita off the couch, leading her into the bedroom.

At first Carmelita was very tense, thinking of what was about to transpire. Yet, Sly placed her on the bed and grinned as he opened the bathroom door. "Do you want the first shower?" The vixen looked at him and then peered into the white tiled bathroom, seeing the shower stall with the pale white curtain pulled open. Slowly standing up, she walked over to the bathroom and lightly smiled as she walked in.

Sly watched her walk in before she turned back to stare at him. He closed the door and looked around his room. Opening his dresser, he found a pair of sweatpants and a dark t-shirt for her to wear to bed, slowly opening the door to the bathroom and walking in to set the cloths by the sink. The steamy air of the shower warmed and comforted him. Hearing the streams of water slap against the floor of the shower caused him to glace at the curtain, seeing the blurry outline of Carmelita's shadow through the curtains.

As he turned to leave, a soft voice from behind him caused him to stop. "Could you get me the shampoo?" Sly glanced back to the shower to see a white bottle sitting on the counter near the shower's curtains, just out of reach from Carmelita's paw. Grabbing it, he placed it into Carmelita's paw as her arm disappeared into the shower.

"I put cloths for you by the sink," the raccoon said into the shower. "Is there anything else you need?" Sly paused as he heard Carmelita from the other side.

"No, thank you." Sly scratched his head for a moment, pressing his lips together in thought. Quirking an eyebrow, he gave a light smirk and slowly pushed open the shower curtain ever so slightly as he began to discard the tattered remains of his grey pants. Grinning, a palm connected with his snout as he was gently pushed out of the shower by Carmelita. "No. You're not allowed to see me naked until we're married, ringtail. I love you, but I still have standards."

Chuckling, Sly pulled on the waist of his pants and fastened them back up. Scratching his head, he made out the faint sound of Carmelita giving off a soft, stifled giggle. "I love you, too."

(Line tool broken)

The night was dead quiet. Cold wind swept through the cracks of the cement, the gaps and splinters of the old water soaked wood of the docks. A soft moan sounds and Scarlet cracked open one of her emerald green eyes. Becoming acquainted with the floor, she pushed off before yelping to the crippling pain as her muscles twitched and tingled under her skin and fur. Blinking, she cleared the fog from the swirling green sea of her irises as she drank in her surroundings.

Shattered glass littered the ground as pieces were lodged into the palm of her paws as she raised herself up by the strength of her arms. Coming to an awkward sitting position, she brought a paw to her forehead and felt it pulsating as it throbbed. Soft, gentle tendrils of smoke wafted up from a body that was tossed a few feet away from her. The vixen's eyes widened as she crawled over to the motionless body, touching the back before withdrawing her paw. An arc of electricity shot towards her paw and gave her a sharp zap as the static clung to the tips of the black fur.

Scarlet grunted as she pushed against the body and rolled it over so that it lay on its back. Indigo Blue's parted lips emitted a very quiet tone as his tongue weakly slithered from within his mouth, attempting to form words. Scarlet brought her paws to his face as she touched his cheeks, pressing a few furry digits to his neck to feel his pulse. He was alive, but his pulse was faint. Grabbing his arm, she draped it over her shoulder as she tried to lift the muscular body.

A grunt emitted from Blue's throat as the glowing blue irises revealed themselves. Coughing hoarsely, he panned his gaze to his left to see Scarlet staring back at him. "So...did we lose, sweetheart?" He gave a chuckle until it broke into a fit of coughing. Scarlet nodded somberly to her lover.

"Unfortunately, darling," she said as she glanced ahead. "We have to go. Someone could have heard us. Can you move?"

"I can try." Lifting a leg, he planted it on the hard wood of the docks as he attempted to push off the surface and place his other foot in front of it. Losing the control of his legs, they went lame as he slid from Scarlet's grasp and dropped onto the dock like a bag of rocks. Scarlet followed as the weight of Blue's arm brought her down with him. Rolling onto his back, he coughed and felt little speckles of blood land on his face as he turned his head to glance at Scarlet next to him.

Scarlet grunted as she pushed off with shaking arms, only to topple to the floor again. A roar of an engine screamed as it echoed through her ears. Looking to the source, she saw a faint glow of headlights as a very fast motorcycle sped by them, coming to a screeching halt just feet from where they lay. The rider, his head concealed by a blackened helmet turned his visor until the glossy visage looked towards the two animals. Balling his paws into fists, the leather from his gloves stretched as he dismounted and pulled the zipper of his jacket down to his midsection.

The tall boots he wore stretched up to just below his knees which were protected by a pair of reinforced pads. His boots crunched on the ground as he placed leather soles against rough gravel. Stopping just before the wood dock, he reached up and pulled the strap from his helmet and slowly lifted it off his head, exposing a head of golden fur and black spotted markings. He shook his head, causing his hair to tousle for a moment as a youthful cheetah stood in front of the pair. Blue and Scarlet looked at one another for a moment, then back to their new arrival, Blue leaning his head back to see the stranger standing upside down.

The feline placed the helmet onto the bike's seat as he narrowed his eyes and gave a faint smirk, quietly growling to himself in satisfaction. Glancing at Scarlet, his brows quirked and he extended both paws towards her, his thumbs and forefingers fully extended."You," he said in a voice that sounded equally as young as he looked, smooth and slightly high-pitched with a hint of his more adult voice starting to form. "You are Scarlet Crimson, correct?" The vixen glanced at Blue and then back to the cheetah and nodded.

"Yes..."

"And you," he then pointed to Blue. "You are Indigo Blue, yeah?" The dog wordlessly nodded his head. The cheetah's grin widened as he threw his paws up in the air in satisfaction. "I knew it," he laughed. "I finally found you both."

"Looking for us were you? I'm touched, if only I had some flowers for you." Blue chuckled to the boy's immature nature. The cheetah then quickly pulled out a gleaming stainless steel revolver from the leather holster strapped to his thigh. Blue then began to stop laughing as he saw the small bullets lined up in the cylinder, fully loaded and staring right back at him.

"Yeah, boss told me you'd be cracking jokes. This is great," he stated with joy. "I got both of you in the same place. Looks like someone had a lot of fun with you before I arrived though." Scarlet emitted a low growl, causing the young cheetah to look towards her.

Smirking, he took a few steps up to her until the tips of his boots were inches from her nose. Bending down, he lifted the growling vixen's chin with a delicate finger, watching as the vixen barred her teeth and looking absolutely feral. He chuckled. "Quite a woman you have here, Indigo. A nice catch." Pulling back his paw as Scarlet snapped her jaws at him, he chuckled once more. "And fiery to boot, you must have every man in this city envying you."

"Who are you, what do you want with us?" Blue spat to the youth who blinked for a moment before refocusing on Scarlet.

"I'm like you, friend, an assassin under the tutelage of the Colonel. What a lame name he calls himself, but I do respect the old guy." Quickly whipping out a second revolver from his holster, he pointed both barrels at the pair of animals on the floor until he began spinning them in his fingers. "You see," he calmly stated while the guns twirled in his paws. "Colonel thinks you're slipping. You've both ran your course and that he follows the philosophy of 'out with the old in with the new'."

"What does all this mean, kid?" Scarlet retorted.

"Kid," he questioned. "Calling me a kid?" Lobbing his guns into the air, they twirled in the air until he grabbed them and resumed spinning the revolvers, tossing one behind his back and catching it back into his open palm, all the while keeping them constantly in motion. Twirling them sideways, he lifted his leg and tossed the gun in his left under his thigh and shot it back up for him to clutch and return to his empty paw. Sliding them back into the holsters, he took a stance of a quick drawer, spreading his feet and letting his fingers dance around the handles of his Smith & Wesson's.

Whipping them out, he pointed the barrels at the pair and shouted, "Bang, you're dead." Chuckling, he tossed the guns so that they landed in different paws, the left gun landing in the right, and the right gun landing in the left.

"What are you, some kind of clown?" Scarlet's snapping finally caused the cheetah to stop twirling his pistols as he replaced one in his holster, the remaining one gleaming in his right paw. Quickly, he fired a shot which slammed into the floor just inches from Scarlet's head, leaving a smoking hole in the wood docks.

"I'm tired. I think I'll finish you both off now." Wagging the barrel of his gun as he would a finger, he pulled out the second and clicked back the hammers, raising them to the animals on the floor.

"Why are you doing this," Blue questioned. "Why kill us if we are allies?"

"Because boss told me to. When you both are gone, I'll get myself a nice little position as his best and only member of his guild of international killers. The quickest gun hands in the west, north, east, and south. But you can call me Gold, Pyrite Gold." Gold licked his lips and quirked his brows as he took one last glance at Scarlet.

"Shame she has to go. Such a waste of a perfect body, but such is the job I took. If only she weren't so easy on the eyes." As he began to squeeze the trigger, an explosion of gunfire erupted on the scene as Gold glanced to his left and then dove behind his black and yellow motorcycle. The bike was peppered with bullets as sparks showered in all directions.

Tom held the smoking Glock 18 in his steady paw as his brown coat trailed behind him with every step. The jackal narrowed his gaze to the bike before turning to both Blue and Crimson. "You chaps alright?" His elegant British accent sounded full of conflict despite how calm and passive it was. Both animals slowly nodded as Tom turned back to the bike, switching his pistol to one shot burst as he pointed it towards the machine.

"I suggest you both get somewhere safe, things are going to get loud." Tom waited patiently as he saw the slightest hint of movement behind the motorcycle. Gold stretched his paw over the edge and blind fired, rolling to more solid cover as Tom was distracted. The jackal dove back behind a pile of crates as he heard the bullets sinking into wood. Tightening his grip, Tom took a deep breath and shot up, catching Gold in the act of doing the same. Both fired, Tom's bullet smacking into Gold's pistol and tearing it from his paw.

Both ducked down once more as Gold withdrew a third revolver from his jacket, pulling back the hammer and peaking from the side of his cover. "Spoiling my fun, are ya," he shouted. "Big mistake getting into a gun fight with me pops."

"You poor child," Tom shook his head. "I've had myself quite a day. And the day I see a bright young man such as yourself being fooled into killing others for profit. There is only so much I can take. But if you keep shooting at me, I'll have no choice."

Gold responded with a laugh as he darted to his left, strafing as he fired four bullets from each gun, rolling to a stop behind another crate. Tom glanced to his left and noticed a small rock lying next to him. Grabbing it, he looked around for a moment before tossing it over his head, hearing a loud clang as the rock crashed into an empty oil drum. As Gold was distracted, Tom bolted up and fired from left to right, steadily chipping away the cheetah's wooden cover. As Gold ran, Tom darted his paw quickly to the upper left and shot a bullet in Gold's direction.

The youth quickly turned around and shot a bullet in retaliation, the little lead missiles soaring through the air until they slammed into each other. Leaping through the air, he swung his arms so that each barrel of his revolvers pointed towards Tom. The remaining two slugs in each gun, for a total of four buried into Tom's chest, knocking the jackal down. As Gold landed on his side, he chuckled as he proved victorious. Picking himself up, he checked for any injuries and found himself virtually unscathed as he slowly walked towards the body that lay on the floor, confused as he didn't see the slightest hint of blood on the corpse.

As Gold drew in close, Tom quickly jumped up off the floor and swung a leg, knocking Gold in the midsection while he followed up with a right hook to the cheetah's jaw. As Tom backed away, seeing Gold readying his pistols as he plucked the mangled remains of the bullets from the Kevlar vest that covered his chest. Gold cursed as he clicked his empty S & Ws, flipping open the cylinders and poured out the empty shells of his spent ammunition. Sliding in a fresh pair of six rounds, totaling twelve bullets, he rolled the cylinder against his arm and watched them spin for a moment before they were locked into place. Tom also loaded a fresh clip into his machine pistol, pulling back the bridge and letting it slap back into place with the mechanical _click clack_ of the device; a fresh ballpoint round exiting the large thirty-two round clip and sliding into the chamber.

The studs embedded into the handle pressed into the skin on his palm as he tightened his grip, easing his finger on the trigger, feeling the small notches of the non-slip grooves on the surface of his finger tip. Gold rested both guns against the sides of his heads, the barrels pointing straight up against his temples, the cold steel making the sides of his head tingle for a moment. At once, they both peaked over their cover and fired, some bullets whizzing by each other while a few sunk into flesh. Gold flinched as his chest was stuck with bullets, the lead projectiles merely lodging themselves into his jacket. "Kevlar weave and leather," Tom whispered. "This will be harder then I thought.

Falling back into his cover, Gold began picking the pieces of lead from his jacket as Tom fell back from the force hitting his vest, the armor absorbing the blunt of most of the shots, but one of the cheetah's .40 caliber round penetrated, and his shoulder was now spurting blood.

Gold then tossed away another empty revolver and pulled out his fourth and final pistol, refilling the other with the last six shots he held. Spinning the cylinder, both hammers were clicked back as he twirled the guns in his paws for a moment. Tom then grunted as he pushed off and dashed, flipping over Gold's cover and bringing the end of the handle of his Glock into Gold's collar bone. The cheetah flinched and fired a bullet, the force from that distance knocking the wind from Tom's lungs as if a wreaking ball slammed into his sternum. Sucking in what air he could, Tom placed the Glock onto Gold's chest,right between the gap in his jacket made by his zipper, and fired, a bullet ripping through him and bursting out his back.

Gold gasped hard and clutched his chest, finding the bullet just barely missed his heart. Despite the excruciating pain in his chest, Gold slammed a fist into Tom's jaw and threw him off, clambering to his bike and saddling it. He attempted to start the bullet riddled vehicle, and as if by some miracle, a spark ignited the fuel and brought the engine to roaring life. Holstering his guns, Gold kicked up the kickstand and quickly revved the bike as he lifted the front tire off the ground, gaining momentum and flinging himself forward as he sped off. Tom pushed off the ground and grunted as he cupped his paw over the large hole in his shoulder.

"I'll be seeing you later," he whispered as the red taillights faded into the distance. The jackal's ears twitched to the sound of footsteps, quickly trampling against the concrete as someone sprinted towards his direction. He glanced over his shoulder to see a male ocelot in about his mid-twenties standing in the street. Pulling out a red, large barreled pistol, the sides bore a glinting gold Interpol badge engraved into the pistol.

"Drop your weapon and place your paws on your head," he stated firmly. "I don't ask twice." Tom gave a slight grin and chuckled.

"Evening Gov. Your timing couldn't have been better, Constable." The ocelot slightly lowered his pistol and furrowed his brows.

"You know me?"

"The bloody hell I do," the jackal grunted as he picked himself off the floor. He paused as Dorian refocused the barrel of his shock pistol back onto him. "Now, now, we don't need things getting messy." He placed a paw on the gun and slowly pushed it down. "Good. Now then, I'm a friend. I can't tell you too much, but let us just say that I'm here to protect Miss Fox, your partner."

"Carmelita? Is she alright?"

"Calm down, she's fine." Picking up the Glock from the floor, he replaced it into the holster strapped to his chest. Fixing the collar of his coat, Tom took a breath and continued. "I was tracking her movements to this location. As I arrived, I found that she had left with..." Tom paused and glanced up at Dorian for a moment.

"...With who?"

"I've said too much. Listen," Tom brought a paw to his ear as Dorian's twitched to the sound of sirens screaming from the distance. "That is the sound of many bad things heading this way. I'm not allowed in any way to be discovered. My involvement in all this is strictly confidential. I'm already breaking regulations talking to you now, but I need your assistance."

Grabbing Dorian by the shoulders, Tom looked straight into the ocelot's eyes. "I know this probably goes against your regulations as an officer too, but I cannot have police involvement. I need somewhere for me and some fellows of mine to hide. Who better then someone with the law on their side to sneak past suspicion? I need you to hide us from the police; will you do this for me?"

Dorian glanced at the flashes of blue and red lights out in the distance, and then turned back to Tom. He detected no lies from what the jackal said, yet he wasn't eager to go against his badge. Clenching his jaw in thought, he hissed out a frustrated sigh from his nose and nodded his head. "Alright, fine."

"Brilliant, now I just need-

"But this is for Carmelita," Dorian interjected, pointing a finger to Tom. "So don't think for a second that by letting you slip past this once you got a free ticket to do what ever the hell you want." Tom raised his paws and grinned.

"Of course, Mr. Booker, of course, now if you could just give me some assistance, we can leave." Gesturing for Booker to follow, the Constable holstered his weapon and strode behind the jackal. Tom placed a few fingers to his lips and emitted a high-pitched whistle. "You two can come out now," he shouted. As he did, two animals hobbled out from the shadows of behind the warehouse. One animal was very familiar to the ocelot.

"Blue?!"

"Booker...nice evening." Blue remained calm as he withdrew a cigarette and cursed as he found his matchbook empty. He glanced back up quickly as Dorian withdrew his shock pistol.

"This man's a killer. He nearly shot Carmelita and me dead, you think I'm going to help him?!" Tom turned to Dorian and patted his shoulder reassuringly.

"I know who these people are, my good Constable. I saved their lives after all." Giving off a chuckle, Tom helped Scarlet carry Blue farther down the docks, Dorian keeping a solid look of disgust and rage. "Come now, Dorian. These people are hurt, they need our help."

"They didn't seem so friendly when that dog was pointing a gun at my face."

"It is different now. One of their own just tried to kill them. And I am positive that they are not so eager to take further assignments from their employer, right?" Both Blue and Crimson nodded solemnly. "There's your assurance, Dorian. Now, do you have anywhere nearby for us to stay under the radar for the night?"

Dorian was still skeptical, but a quick glance at the hallowed faces of Blue and Scarlet began to toy with his emotions. Always being one to give help to others, he would kick himself later for giving in so easily. "Fine, we can take them to my house. Its a few miles, but it's all we have. I have medical supplies there too."

"Smashing," Tom exclaimed. He carried the weight as Scarlet moved back from Blue's weight to take a breath. "Miss Crimson, you are in no shape to be carrying Indigo here. Dorian, why don't you assist the young lady?" Dorian quickly darted his eyes from Tom to Scarlet.

"You're joking, right?" Sighing, Tom brought a paw to his ear and paused.

"I don't hear anyone laughing. Go on; don't be rude to the nice lady."

"Nice, right," The ocelot clenched his jaw as he waited to be instructed by Scarlet. "Anything you need, miss?" He could clearly be heard speaking through clenched teeth. Scarlet formed a thin lipped frown and folded her arms. Turing her head to stare at Blue, the dog nodded and jerked his head to Dorian's direction.

"Very well," Scarlet stated. She watched as Dorian extended his arms as he waited for the vixen to allow him to carry her. She stared at him for a moment and dropped her red leather purse in his open paws. "Carry that for me. I'm sure it isn't too much for you to handle." She then followed behind Dorian who grumbled as he glanced at the purse swinging in his paw. "The purse goes really well with your necktie, Mr. Booker," the vixen giggled.

Shaking his head, Dorian drew in a breath and sighed deeply. "This is going to be a long night," the ocelot whispered.


	20. Sleeping Beauty

**Chapter 20**

**Sleeping Beauty**

* * *

**T**he sun's soft rays began bathing the buildings in golden light; the shoddy condemned structures became somewhat beautiful in the early morning rays. The light however never penetrated through the windows of one particularly well kept home. No light poured through the gaps from the wood as new insulation blocked all light, wind, and rain. Dark curtains absorbed all light from entering the house. Despite the lack of light, a soft groan emitted from the back of the sleeping raccoon's throat as his eyes fluttered open slightly.

His vision blurred, he could make out an orange face with dark blue hair staring back at him. His vision cleared and Sly found himself staring into the face of a sleeping Carmelita, her lips parted slightly as warm breath gently poured from her open mouth with each one of her comforting sighs. The master thief curled his lips into a lazy smile as he blinked once more and slowly rose out of bed. He must have dozed off after taking his shower for all he recalled was going to the closet to get a new hat and sweater to lay by the bedside. The vixen must have crawled in with him while he slept.

Scratching his head, he grinned and let out a comforting sigh as his feet met soft carpet, pushing himself off the bed as he glanced back at the slumbering female. He pulled the blanket farther up to better cover her cold shoulders and looked back to see the screen of his computer was alight. Quirking a brow, he walked over to the desk and placed a paw on the mouse, clicking on a minimized window. As the panel enlarged, the tired green face of Bentley filled the screen. "Bentley?" Sly's voice caused the turtle to stir as he was awoken from his spot on his desk.

"Sly," he shouted, causing the raccoon to turn the knob on the speakers to lower the volume. "Finally, I've been trying to contact you all night."

"Sorry, Bentley, but I was a little preoccupied with things last night. Those assassins came for me and Carmelita again."

"I see," the turtle pushed the brim of his glasses farther up his nose. "Was there any trouble?"

"Carmelita got hurt pretty bad and I got a few burns on my back but nothing too troubling." Sly then noticed his paws were nervously shaking as he stared at his furry digits resting on the desk, possibly a side effect to the psychological trauma Blue's toxin had caused him. "I should get her to a hospital here soon, though. How have things been on your end, buddy?"

"It's Siberia, Sly. It's dark, it's cold, and there is nothing here. But aside from the obvious, construction is going rather well if I say so myself."

"Construction?" Sly's question caused Bentley to chuckle.

"No worries pal. I'll show it to you when you get here." The turtle glanced over his shoulder before returning to the web cam. "Anyway, how's the Carmelita situation going?" As Bentley spoke, a soft yawn emitted from behind Sly as Carmelita rose from the bed and stretched her arms towards the roof.

Bentley chuckled once more before readjusting his glasses. "I see it's going pretty well, Casanova." Sly cleared his throat and turned the lens of the web cam away from Carmelita to give her some privacy.

"Nothing happened, so I'd stop with your train of thought. Like I said, she was hurt very badly; you think I would put that much physical strain on her body like that?"

"No, but I'm sure you at least made a move towards her." There was a pause from Sly as he glanced down at his shaking paws for a moment. Soon, a grin spread across his face and he slowly nodded.

"You would have too if you were in my position." Sly looked behind himself to see Carmelita standing by the doorway of the bathroom staring directly at him. She simply smiled and gave him a wink as she disappeared into the bathroom. "We both agreed to save those sorts of things for marriage...if we ever plan on it. Listen, Bentley, now isn't the time for this. I need to know what's going on."

"Right," the turtle glanced off camera for a moment and then began staring at his lap, the shuffling of papers coming through the speaker systems of Sly's computer. "Currently, the ATV is almost ready to hit the snow. As we were constructing it, I attempted multiple times to hack into a few security grids and satellites to find an accurate location for where these people are rebuilding and housing Clockwerk. So far, all I've found is that there has been some activity far to the east."

"Well, glad to hear. Or we could wander around aimlessly until someone starts shooting at us, blow us up, rip us to pieces, something's bound to happen." Sly's optimism caused Bentley to quirk a brow behind his thick glasses. He did speak truth however, something usually always happens. Whenever they tried finding the enemy, they normally found them first. "Anyway, what is this ATV thing anyway? I doubt we can cross Siberia in a measly four wheeled cycle."

"My friend, you have no idea."

* * *

As the sun rose, the light poured through the thin barrier of the glass windows and reflected into the small home. It would take more then some light to wake the individuals that slept in the bedroom. Two bodies shared the bed while one lay on the couch in the living room, the fourth and final one taking a spot in the reclining seat. The passing racket of the garbage truck that bellowed like a beast caused the golden jackal's yellow speckled eyes to flutter open the slightest, enough for a sliver of light to penetrate his irises. Grunting, he slowly sat up from the couch and ran a paw through his hair before blinking a few more times, clearing the fog that clung to his eyes so he could no longer see the fuzzy outlines of objects.

He swung his legs over the side and sat on the couch, hissing to the pain in his mid section. The .44 slugs that had punched against his chest last night had left many golf ball sized welts upon his body, the rancid purple and green bruises could be faintly seen from beneath his gold, sandy colored fur. Poking the spots for a moment, he pushed off the couch with another throaty grunt as he wiggled his toes against the carpet, walking into the kitchen. Scratching his sides, he stretched his limbs, feeling his knees popping and shoulders cracking before bending down to the fridge. Opening the cold chamber, he surveyed the area for something worth ingesting, finding nothing to his satisfaction.

A mechanical click from behind him caused his ears to twitch and he reflexively held his paws up. Slowly rising back up to stand straight, he backed away from the fridge. "Remember, I still have my doubts about all of this. Don't get too comfortable." Dorian held the small Cobra in his paw as Tom slowly turned around, a lazy smile graced his lips as he flashed a fang filled smile.

"I understand your doubts," he said. "But they are ill-advised." Quickly, the jackal snatched the gun, twisting it from the ocelot's paw and in a flash; the barrel was now staring down at the feline, the handle firmly in Tom's sandy paw. His grin widened as Dorian stiffened to the sights staring back at him. "All these years of having a gun pointed at my face, you didn't think I'd be able to counter it?"

Flicking the cylinder open, the jackal saw six empty holes devoid of any bullets. Glancing back at the ocelot, he smirked and handed the firearm back to him. "You're a good man, Booker," he said as he offered a paw in a friendly handshake. Dorian began to reach for the paw before Tom quickly withdrew it. "A tad slow, however."

A stir from above them cause both the animal's eyes to turn toward the stairs. A pair of animals slowly trotted down from the stairs, Blue pressed a paw against the wall the staircase jutted out from as his other was slung around Scarlet's shoulders. Tom and Dorian watched them walk down to the first story of the home, slowly hobbling towards one another. "Nice to see you two up and about so early," Tom said in a cheery voice. Blue grunted and rolled his eyes in response to the jackal's optimism.

Scarlet led the malamute to lie on the couch, lifting his legs slowly to prop onto the cushioned seats. Dorian took a seat on the loveseat by the couch and leaned forward, his arms resting on his thighs as he laced his fingers together. The black slits of his pupils burned holes into Blue's intense crystal blue and Scarlet's intoxicating emerald green eyes. They all stared at one another hard, leaving Tom to dart his eyes back and forth between them nervously. "Why don't I get breakfast started, hmm?"

Tom escaped back into the kitchen, taking a deep breath as the air within the living room was thick and sizzling with suppressed anger. As Tom pulled out things from the fridge, Dorian remained still as he continued to stare, his eyes unblinking. Blue's gaze narrowed, blinking his eyes looked much like two small blue light bulbs quickly flicking off and flicking back on with their otherworldly glow. "Don't you know it is impolite to stare?" The ocelot responded with a slight twitch of his brow but remained staring.

Indigo balled his paw into a fist, but was soon uncoiled as Scarlet placed her fingers between the dog's clenched digits. Her eyes darted to Dorian's as her head remained still, giving the ocelot a sideways glance. "I suppose an apology is out of the question?"

"You suppose correctly," Dorian growled. "The fact that you tried to kill me is not what's bothering me, but you used me to try and kill a very dear friend of mine. With my own gun no less." The feline's grip tightened against his fingers as he bit at his lower lip in frustration. There they were, lying so close with no hope of a proper way to defend themselves. Yet his paw remained laced with his other instead of gripping a gun.

"Technically," Scarlet's voice piped in. "It was only Indigo who used you; I had nothing to do with killing you or your partner. I was off dealing with Sly Cooper during this time so you really have no need to be angry at me."

"Cooper?" Dorian blinked for the first time in those last ten minutes as he raised a brow. "You were after Cooper?"

"Why yes I was," she smiled wickedly. "Quite a night that turned out to be." Dorian glanced at the floor in thought, thinking about the false accusations of Cooper that he told to Carmelita. That day seemed a lifetime ago as he recollected. _She was telling the truth after all, which means Sly was telling the truth as well._

"So you and Cooper aren't...together?" Blue moved his irises slowly towards Scarlet's red and white face as she smiled sweetly.

"Of course not, although..." A low pitched growl vibrated inside of Blue's throat as his lips curled back slightly. The vixen patted the dog's chest and shushed him. "Oh darling, please." Blue grunted and moved a bit farther down the couch, separating Scarlet from his lap.

Rubbing his thighs, the muscles were still tight from the acute shock of electricity that struck his body last night. Scarlet looked back towards Dorian and gave a faint smile, appearing sweet innocent and naïve. "So, Mr. Booker, how long have you been in law enforcement?" The ocelot looked up from the floor as he stopped rubbing the back of his neck to look up at Scarlet. No one had ever asked him about his career.

"Well...uh, I've been an officer for about eight years now. I was originally stationed in Stockholm until I was placed into the Interpol department. I was sent to Paris and I've been here for about three months now." Booker was surprised to see Scarlet still listening intently to every word the ocelot said. "Um...what about you, how did you get started in this...business?"

Scarlet took a moment to think, a finger on the end of her chin before she began speaking. "Well, when I was a little girl, I found that my luck wasn't the greatest in the world. My parents died when I was very little, a group of robbers had broken into our house and killed them. As the police came, I ran away, being a little girl I had no idea what was going on. I stayed away and hid until I was about fifteen, going wherever I felt like and taking whatever I could.

It was difficult, but I got by. It was then that I was cornered by a man with a knife, grabbing me by my hair and throwing me on the ground. I would most likely have been violated and killed, but something took over and I ended up standing over him, I had the knife in my paw and blood dripped from a wound in the man's throat. I was horrified, the shock beginning to develop into my post traumatic stress disorder. As I lay there, I cried for the first time since my parents were killed, stopping as I heard a sound.

A man dressed all in black stood looking down at me on the ground. I panicked and crawled back, brandishing the knife in front of me to keep him away. He merely bent down and reached a gloved paw to my face. He wiped the dirt and blood from my face with a cloth and took my paw, lifting me off the ground. He asked me if I would like to work for him.

He would give me a place to live, cloths to wear, and three square meals a day. How could I refuse?"

"This man was the Colonel?" Dorian's question caused Scarlet to glance at the floor for a moment before nodding.

"...Yes, his name is Coal. That was the last time I ever saw his face again. Every time he appeared to me, his face was cast in shadows. He...was such a nice man back then." Scarlet placed a paw on her chest and sighed. "I...don't normally talk this much about myself...forgive me if it's...awkward."

"No, its fine, I'm sorry about...everything." Scarlet gave a small smile in gratitude. Blue watched in silence with acute eyes. He began to feel somewhat jealous as the conversation between the two became more comfortable, each one talking about more personal things such as hobbies and what sort of things they enjoy doing. It wasn't until Dorian addressed him that he took his eyes off Scarlet and quickly darted his irises towards the feline.

"So, Indigo, how did you become involved in all of this?" Blue blinked a moment, flashing his ominous eyes before pulling in a breath as he quietly spoke.

"My family life was very...unique. See, my father and mother were from two very different families. When they became close, they had to hide their affairs from their relatives since they were of different canine breeds. Not one to mix, it was very difficult to tell my grandparents that they were to marry. But, sure enough, they did and a few months later I was born.

When I was about twelve I believe, I had gotten a call from the authorities that my parents were killed in a car incident. I was sent to live at the university where I better developed my education under my grandfather's tutelage. My parents only wanted the best for me; all their money and belongings were passed to me as was stated in the event of death, yet I couldn't touch it until I was eighteen. Now, how I got into this business was a few years later, when I was about fourteen. Being in one of the highest universities with nothing but the most pompous little brats to ever walk the face of this earth, I was always teased for being of mixed breed and young of age."

Blue frowned and scratched his ear, continuing, "Using my 'people skills', I was slowly but surly able to become mutual friends with these ingrates, buying them their lunch, folding their laundry, the certain little things that they didn't like doing. It was one day at lunch; I slipped in a little surprise that I cooked up in chemistry class. They ate it, and the sweet taste of revenge graced my tongue."

The canine grinned for a moment before it faded away into a somber expression, the slightest sliver of guilt barely detectable in his gaze. "They began screaming and howling in pain to things that weren't even there...until the effects became too much on them and they collapsed into a deep and deadly state of shock. The campus authorities came and I fled, knowing I would be expelled and possibly sent to juvenile hall to await my sixteenth birthday, in which I would then have been tried as an adult and sentenced to prison."

"Seeing as I could never go back, there was no other place for me to go. That was until a man dressed all in black came up to me and asked if I would like to live with him. He would give me cloths to wear, a place to live, food to eat. He said he would even tutor me from now on, helping me develop my chemistry skills and psychiatric prowess. He even promised me no one would ever pester me ever again."

"It was a gift from God. So I took it and became a member of Colonel's guild." Blue blinked and hissed the air from his nostrils in a long sigh as he crossed his arms. "Anything else you would like to know about us, Booker?" Scarlet reached over and gave the malamute a soft shove.

"Now Indigo, be nice. I think he's sweet, being a man you tried to kill, I'm amazed at how he can suppress his emotions."

"Who's hungry," a voice from behind the crowd shouted. Tom placed four steaming plates of eggs and bacon onto the table as he whistled for everyone to come to the table. "Hurry now, before it gets too cold." Scarlet moved quickly to sit at the table while the two men slowly stood up from their seats and walked to their breakfast. Booker stopped for a moment as he watched Scarlet at the table.

"She is quite something, isn't she?" The ocelot turned to see Blue standing next to him. He nodded and returned to look at her for a moment.

"She's very unique, no other woman like her that I've ever seen."

"She seems to like you, not many men she meets live long enough for her to call them sweet. You're lucky."

"Me?" He balked. "You're the one who gets to hold her in bed every night. You spend every moment with her traveling the world. But...I guess it is nice to know she can be friendly to others." Blue gave a soft shove to the feline's shoulder as he pushed past him.

"Yeah, keep your paws off her."

* * *

Rubbing his paw against hers, Sly smiled at Carmelita as she used her free paw to scribble the information on a clipboard, the release forms almost completely filled out. The raccoon glanced down at the vixen's leg, seeing the bandages wrapped around her thigh. He frowned at her injury, but she seemed fine, even walking without any complication. He was equally glad that she got professional help from a doctor to refresh her stitching. "They said it should be ready to have the stitches removed by next week's end."

Sly glanced back up at her face, seeing her staring at him with those almond eyes of hers. She set the clipboard down and placed a paw onto his face, giving a slight smile. Letting her paw slide out of his, she walked back to the front window and turned in her forms. As Sly stood up, they both exited the hospital, paw in paw as they walked back to the car. As they climbed in, Carmelita couldn't help but wonder what Dorian was up to right now.

_He probably realized his cars gone by now,_ she thought. Sly started the engine, revving it to heat up and he pulled out of the parking lot. The raccoon remained silent for the majority of the drive, his mind conflicting with itself about what he was going to ask Carmelita...if he could even ask her to begin with. He wanted her to come with him, how it pained him to tell her that. But she had been through so much; endured such countless torture from all this madness that sending her into more danger pained him.

What if she said no? What if she refused his offer, working with criminals instead of against them? But he needed her, she knew this. Carmelita glanced at Sly who quickly moved his eyes from her and focused on the road once more. She smiled and placed a paw on his knuckles that gripped the steering wheel.

"You never were good at hiding things from me," she murmured. "What's on your mind?"

"Never," Sly questioned. "Wasn't I able to hide from you all those years you pursued me?" He was going to tell her how he tricked her all those years of faking his amnesia, but considered it very wise to never bring that subject up again.

"You know what I mean, just tell me." Cooper sighed and parked the car. Unbuckling the safety belt, he turned his body towards her as he held both her paws in his.

"Carmelita," he spoke softly. "I want you to come with me to Siberia." The fox blinked her eyes and continued to listen. "Clockwerk is there, we found a way to travel to where all this trouble can finally be put to an end...but I can't do this without you. I know I'd be throwing you into more danger, and I hate myself for even suggesting any of this, but I can't stand being far from you when god knows what will be coming after you while I'm gone."

He took a breath and waited for a response, getting only silence as he continued. "I know I'm asking a lot from you, having you work with me and my friends, a group of criminals you have pursued almost your entire law enforcement career. But we've always worked well together, always achieving success." Still she remained quiet. "Clockwerk's revival was the reason I had to leave you in the first place, so that I could stop him permanently from coming back and terrorizing you and destroying any chance of us having a family together."

Carmelita's lips parted slightly as she put a finger to Sly's mouth, halting him from continuing speaking. "Cooper...Sly," she spoke just above a whisper. "You ask all this of me, after what you've done..." Sly swallowed hard as the tips of his ears began to slowly droop. She leaned forward and brushed her lips against his in a soft, sweet kiss. "I'm coming with you."

* * *

"So, how is it?" Tom attempted to make conversation by getting a second opinion on his cooking. Dorian slid his fork into his mouth and chewed the yellow glob of scrambled egg, slowly analyzing the flavor to his liking. He nodded before swallowing, taking a gulp of water to follow the eggs down his throat.

"It's pretty good; I don't normally get eggs for breakfast."

"Good, I was rather worried. I never was one for cooking, that sort of thing was always something my...wife was good at." He shoved egg into his mouth to try and halt the conversation from going any farther from there. Turning to the two other animals at the table, he smiled at them and tried to include them in conversation. "So, how are they?"

Blue looked up from his plate with a slight grimace. He pointed to his jaw and curled back his lips. "It hurts too much to chew right now." Turning to Scarlet who was prodding the yellow mass with her fork, she took a very small bite from the egg and chewed before dabbing her lips with a napkin.

"Miss Crimson," Tom spoke. "This isn't a five star restaurant at some resort in the Bahamas. If you're hungry, then eat." The vixen blinked for a moment before grabbing her fork and taking a much larger bite, licking her lips and taking a long pull on her glass of orange juice. "There, much better, isn't it? No need to be dainty, you're with friends here."

"Huh, hell of a friendship," Dorian muttered as he bit off a piece of bacon. Scarlet narrowed her gaze and glanced at the butter knife next to her plate for a moment. She then looked up and saw Tom quirk an eyebrow and slowly shook his head.

"So," the jackal said, clapping his paws together. "For the agenda today, little ones, the first thing that needs to be done is to report in to my superiors of our situation. I'll phone in that you all are now part of the operation, and that you will be assisting me in stopping Colonel's organization. And, seeing as I have two former agents who know Colonel's syndicate intimately, we can find him; put an end to his ridiculous charades, and be home in time for tea. What do you all say?"

"Whatever gets the job done and Carmelita that much safer," Constable Booker stated. Scarlet rolled her eyes and rested her chin on her paw, her elbow propped up on the table.

"Carmelita, Carmelita, is that the only woman in the world worth swooning over these days? I swear that is the only name I ever here anymore."

"Why, looking for someone new to have their eyes on you, sweetheart?" Blue's glowing blue irises seemed to become ignited by an angry flame as he narrowed his gaze at his mate. Scarlet's ears flattened and she made a face.

"Darling, we've been through this already."

"Oh yes of course, I'm your one and only love in this world and that no other man could fill in the hole. Couple that with a nice little wink of the eye and a prissy little twirl and that would sum up everything quite accurately. Save me the speech, sweetheart." He grunted and violently ripped off a piece of bacon as if he were tearing off the head of some hapless victim. The vixen's fur bristled with anger as she stood up from the table along with her lover and they stood in front of one another.

"You thick headed ape," she growled with a shove to his chest. "You can never get the message, all you do is whine and complain and twist everything around until it looks like I'm the bad guy here!"

"At least I'm speaking the truth here; you only try to defend yourself because you know I'm right."

"Just shut up, would you?!"

"Calm down, sweetie, you're making a scene." The vixen then threw a fist at Blue's face which he effortlessly grasped and halted just a few inches from his nose. He held her arm for a moment as they both stared at one another coldly. Blue's lips curled back and Scarlet's whiskers twitched as they both smashed their lips into one another's. The fox clutched and dug her claws into his back as he inhaled her scent deeply in her soft sensitive neck.

Blue quickly stopped and glanced to Dorian and Tom who stared at them with blank expressions. He turned his eyes from them to Scarlet and then pushed his chair in. "Please excuse us for a moment, would you?" Scarlet then clamped her jaws onto his neck and buried her face into his fur as he turned around and they both sprinted upstairs. Dorian sat there for a moment, the fork in his paw slowly sliding out of his fingers until it noisily clanked against the plate.

"Good god. Are they always like this?" The ocelot turned to Tom who brought a fist to cover his mouth, stifling a chuckle.

"Well, what a treat. We get breakfast, and a show. I haven't had this much fun since after midnight hour at the pub back home." Booker glanced back upstairs and swallowed hard. Dorian's ears twitched, as did his eyebrows when he heard a door slam shut from upstairs.

However, from the echo and location of the sound on the floor above them, the ocelot found out something that made him clench his fist. "Did they just go into _my_ room!?" As if to answer his question, the tell-tale squeak of bedsprings sounded through the floor. _His_ bedsprings. Tom chuckled and Dorian yelled. "What the hell!? They come into _my_ house, use _my_ medical supplies, eat _my_ food, and then they have the audacity to boink each other in _my _bedroom using _my_ bed!?"

Tom chuckled a little harder, trying to conceal his big grin but failing miserably.

* * *

Winter, such a lovely time of the year, winter in Russia was another story. The cold was murderous to any exposed fur and skin as it would freeze it white in an instant. No reptiles ever dared set foot outside the protective walls of a building for more then a few minutes. Sly and Carmelita huddled against one another as they waited outside the airport, waiting for their transportation to come gather them and whisk them away. The guttural voices of the Russian locals filled their ears as they spoke to one another, blasted over the speaker systems, or cursed at one another, a large jam of traffic in front of them on account of the storm.

Carmelita ribbed Sly in the side, the blow absorbed somewhat by his thick coat and her heavily insulated elbow. "Whose bright idea was it to come to Russia in the middle of February?" Sly chuckled and pulled the scarf down from covering his muzzle as he spoke.

"Don't worry, when this is all over, you can fry Bentley to a crisp with your pistol. Now however, we really need him on this job." His ringed tail that was wrapped around his leg loosened up somewhat as he saw the blue visage of the Cooper gang's van, at least, he thought it was the van. The logo of the blue raccoon's face was concealed to ward off suspicion as Murray leaned out the window and gestured to them with the wave of his gloved hand.

"Hop in, pal. I don't have a problem with the cold, but I think Bentley wants to get out of here quick." Sly nodded and grabbed the luggage as the two animals climbed into the back of the van. The spacious backend of the vehicle was roomy enough for both Sly and Carmelita to sit with their legs fully extended, their luggage, as well as some of Bentley's surveillance equipment. Carmelita shook her head as she drank in all of her surroundings.

"It could be so easy...just to slap the cuffs on all of you at once." Bentley slowly turned his head to look back at the fox and darted his beady eyes to Sly. He gave a smile and pulled on the brim of his blue cap to cover his eyes.

"But you promised not to, right, sweetie?" The fox smirked at the turtle and folded her arms as she bundled up one of her many layers of clothing into a makeshift pillow and rested her head on it, staring up at the ceiling of the van. "So, turtle, how long do we have until we get to where we are going?" Bentley adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat to Carmelita's abrupt tone. He wasn't as eccentric to the idea of having a police officer accompanying them as she was to assisting a group of thieves.

"With road conditions, it will most likely be at least eight hours, so I'd suggest getting some sleep while we can. We got a big day in store for us tomorrow." The vixen gave a wordless 'thumbs up' and shut her eyes. Bentley lifted the frames of his glasses and rubbed the area around his eyes before blinking and turning back to Sly. "Thank god she's got a record of success against Clockwerk. I don't know how much I can take this after a few days."

"She's as thrilled as you are for coming along and helping us too, pal. I'd ease up on her; she has a hard time with processing her emotions, especially to criminals. She's a hard girl to crack...but she's worth it." Lifting his hat, he glanced at the sleeping beauty lying in front of him and gave a soft smile.

"You mean she's worth bringing along to stop Clockwerk."

"Of course...of course, that's exactly why I asked her to come with me."

"Whatever, I just hope she brought more jellybeans. I swear, that small prison she had me locked in at Canada would have been a living nightmare without those candies she got for me." Murray gave a hearty laugh as he plowed through torrents of white dust. Hours ticked by arduously, Carmelita being the smart one by shutting her eyes and dozing off, cutting her wait time in half. As everyone was ready to start going mad with boredom and claustrophobia, the van came to a halt in front of an old morose looking facility.

Sly lifted his hat and glanced out the window, smiling as their ride was over. Looking towards Carmelita on the floor, he gently nudged her shoulder, attempting to wake her. Seeing as she wouldn't comply, he sighed and scooped her up himself. "You guys mind getting our bags for us?" Sly gestured towards the bags with the jerk of his head and Murray nodded, hefting all the bags in both arms.

Bentley wheeled over to the door, jerking forward to use his body weight to help trudge him along in the snow. "Good thing my chair doesn't rust," he mumbled as he fished for the keys. Opening the shelter, the thick metal door slid open with a good nudge from Murray's shoulder and they all entered. "Quick, shut the door, you're making it too cold in here for me!" Penelope snapped as she doused the flame of her torch and lifted up the face shield.

The first thing she noticed was Sly carrying Carmelita in his arms, the vixen fallen in a deep slumber. She immediately turned off all her noisy equipment as Sly smiled at her in gratitude. "You know where the beds are?" The mouse pointed down the hallway that was lit up much like a cavern, strung with lanterns all along the length of the cold, metal walls.

"Down the length, turn left and head up the stairs. Sleep tight you two." Murray and Bentley came up to the mouse as she reset the torch flame of her welding tool to a pointed cone of bright blue fire. The turtle glanced behind himself to Murray.

"Just put those anywhere, Murray."

"Got it," and he dropped the luggage right where he stood on the concrete floor. He walked up to the nearly finished contraption and grabbed the length of thick chains, pulling them as he hoisted up a large engine, slowly lowering it into the front of the armored vehicle. "This is the last engine, right?" Bentley nodded and turned to Penelope.

"We should be ready to head out tomorrow morning. Do we have all the supplies on board?" The mouse nodded as she flipped the face shield down and touched the hot tip to the metal frames of the vehicle's flank. Bentley wheeled over to the large terminal of all his equipment set up and plugged into the wall. He typed out the rest of the data from what he gathered from the surveillance satellites and uploaded it onto the ATV's onboard computer.

As he finished filling its data banks, he switched off the machinery, the room almost completely growing dark from the bright glow the terminals were originally putting off. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned and followed Penelope and Murray back down the hallway, shutting off the lanterns as they passed on their way to their rooms. As the lights were shut off, the small glow that shown under the crack of the door was doused, making the small room almost completely dark. Sly's eyes adjusted to the pitch blackness as his nocturnal irises grew so he could see as clearly as if it was dawn. The raccoon sighed, bringing a paw to his shoulder and rubbing it tenderly.

His body was in worse condition then he thought; Blue had certainly left quite a few souvenirs on him. Pulling off his sweater and dropping it in a pile where his winter jacket lay, he unlaced his boots and set them down gently near the foot of the bed. Laying his head on the pillow, he stared up at the ceiling for a moment, listening to his breathing that began to fall in rhythm with the sleeping vixen lying next to him. A paw reached up and combed through the short hair on his head, a sigh rumbling from deep in his throat. The paw slowly slid down his face and rested flat on his stomach, the small, delicate fingers scratching in-between the ripples of his midsection.

His eyes closed in comfort as he reached an arm out and coiled it around Carmelita, pulling her closer to him. Her tail wrapped around him as he clutched the blankets with his feet and pulled them close enough for his paw to clutch the sheets pulling them up to cover their bodies. The howling wind blew against the shuddering walls, yet they felt as content as a new born baby lying in its crib. A cold tip pressed against his neck that sent goosebumps running across the skin under his fur. "Glad to see you're starting to relax."

She raised her paw and patted his nose. "Shut up..." Her next few words were drown out by a yawn as she snuggled up closer into Sly's neck, raising her muzzle up to caress under his chin. "I hate myself for siding with criminals...but if it's for the better,"

"Not to mention for our future kids." He felt her head turn from left to right slowly against his neck.

"Not this nonsense again, Cooper. I already told you this once that that's still a debatable subject."

"What will it take to sway you, my blue haired angel?" She opened her glossy brown eyes slightly and nudged Sly so that he looked towards her.

"For starters...call me that more often." The thief blinked sleepily as a grin spread across his lips.

"It's done my blue haired angel. Is there anything else?" Carmelita slowly blinked, opening her eyes once more as she came up with a response.

"This whole Clockwerk business...make it the last of your criminal escapades...for good this time. I don't want our children to develop any bad habits from their absent minded father." Sly closed his eyes to stop a subtle flow of tears as his cheeks rose in a deeper smile.

"It's done...my blue haired angel."


	21. Clear

**Chapter 21**

**Clear**

* * *

Author's Note: _Hey, how's everyone doing? If you've haven't noticed by now, I haven't been updating as frequently as I have been in the past. Well...you'll just have to deal with it. I have quite the work load ahead of me, not to mention my uncountable number of odd jobs I've been doing as of late, and I have finals to be studying. But don't let this tidbit of information get you down, I'll still be actively working on this story with my beta whose been a great inspiration and contribution to the story...its just that it might take longer than normal to get chapters out. _

_Just keep an eye open for the next update, yeah? And no, I can't give you an estimate of when the next chapter will be uploaded. Not only will it ruin the experience for you, but I have no idea when the next one will be out, hehehe. Anywho, enjoy the latest chapter, I have a job to do._ _Read, review, mingle amongst yourselves, reflect upon your place in the universe, discover the writing in the cosmos, I really don't care which. But I do hope you enjoy the update._

_Tex_

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"**B**lue, open the Goddamn door!" Dorian ran into the slab of wood with his shoulder for what had to be the tenth time, the barrier refusing to yield. He could still hear the squeaking of metal coils as disturbing images of those two in his own bed quickly moving up and down acted like poison in his mind. He shook his head, clearing his mind of the disturbing images as he clamped down his jaw and pulled out his back-up side arm, flicking open the cylinder of the .22 Viper revolver and loading in a fresh set of bullets. He spun it around a few times before clicking it into place and pulling back the hammer. "This is your last chance, Indigo! Scarlet! Open the goddamn door!"

The bouncing of the bed springs, _his_ bed springs**,** and a woman's cries were his only response. Cursing under his breath, he aimed the barrel and shot the lock on the door knob, the golden handle coming loose as the mechanisms that kept it locked were torn away from the metal housing.

With the door knob still intact, Dorian twisted it and flung open the door, leveling his sights on the back of Indigo's head just before firing off a round. Both Blue and Scarlet separated from each other, and the malamute tumbled off of the bed when the small .22 caliber slug shot past his ear and embedded itself into the wall right next to Scarlet's head. The vixen shrieked and wrapped what blankets were left around herself before she looked at the hole in the wall, shock overtaking her as the fox realized just how close the bullet came to hitting her.

Blue clutched his jaw when he tried to push himself off of the floor, the impact with the hardwood revitalizing the pulsating pain from his brawl with Cooper. As he opened his glowing crystal blue eyes, the looming figure of Dorian stood over him, flashing his greenish yellow eyes.

The malamute narrowed his gaze as he tried to push off the floor. "Idiot, why did you do that? You could have killed us with-

His sentence was cut short when he tried to stand up, a cold steel barrel pressing against his forehead. "I've got four shots left, and wouldn't you know there are two _too many_ people in this room humping in MY BED!!!"

"Now...now Dorian, don't be hasty. We're you're friends now...we're here to help you. We just...got caught up in the moment and we needed a-

"A place to screw, and you had to sidestep _all _of the guest rooms to go _straight_ for my bed?!"

"Please understand, we only just got here, this was the only bed we had knowledge that you had. You do live by yourself don't you?"

"Enough," He growled, his breath growing heavy as he rushed it out from between his fangs. "I'd be doing the whole damn world a favor by blowing your brains out. You and that crazy woman have been treating me like shit since I let you into my house! You've used _my_ medical supplies, eaten _my_ food, used up _my _hot water in _my_ shower….." He gripped the handle of the small revolver even tighter as he yelled on. "Hell! I even let you sleep in _my_ bed, my Goddamn bed!"

"Hey now, just think this through-" Indigo said in a soothing voice, but it got the barrel of the handgun jabbed against his head again.

"I'm not finished yet..." The ocelot growled, taking a deep breath in as he continued, "I kept you from being gunned down by a firing squad or even from being sent to the damn electric chair! Not only have I saved your asses and provided you with a place to eat, recover, and rest your heads, but I am putting _my fucking career_ on the line to save you two! If we got caught, I could very well be stripped of my position and sentenced to jail for God only knows how long, my reputation would be sullied, and if I _ever_ got out, then I wouldn't be able to get a job anywhere! In a worst case scenario, I could find myself standing next to you in that firing squad or be third in line for the chair!"

Scarlet whimpered as she started to shake at the intensity of Dorian's yelling, "And here, this is how you repay me!? By boinking each other in my bed!? I'm gonna have to get a whole new mattress! No steam cleaner can wipe away the memories...I'm never going to have a good night sleep again."

Blue glanced at Scarlet whose eyes began to grow big as she placed a paw over her heart, her breathing beginning to quicken in pace. Blue raised his brows nervously before glancing back at Dorian. The ocelot looked at the panting vixen and then back to Blue.

"What's going on, what's her problem?"

"Her pills," Blue spoke. "She needs her pills. Her stress disorder..."

"Well, doesn't this make things a bit more interesting? It looks like you may need my help again. And it looks like you don't know where you placed her purse…or else you probably would have gone downstairs for it already."

"Please...her heart will stop if you don't do anything...please!"

"And poor little Indigo won't have his piece of ass anymore, what a shame." He slowly began to depress the trigger, feeling the bile that laced his tongue for how he knew he was over reacting, but his mind just replayed Blue's kind words, and then how he nearly succeeded in his bid to kill Carmelita; first with _his_ gun, and then with his neurological poison. These two people had not only tried to kill himself and Carmelita, but Sly Cooper as well…and he had no idea how many of Scarlet's and Indigo's victims have begged like this before, only to be cut down without any mercy. An arm wrapped around his and he turned to see Scarlet's face, her green eyes glossy with tears.

"Please...don't kill him...please." Dorian looked deep into her eyes, a hot chunk of gravel forming at the base of his throat that he had to force himself to swallow down hard, but he did not lower his firearm.

"Why shouldn't I?" He asked pushing away her paw before kicking the malamute in the face when he tried to move; the canine clutching his jaw as he rolled around on the floor. Dorian un-linked the vixen's arm and pointed the weapon at the assassin; Scarlet's breathing hitching again when the barrel was pressed against her chest. "Why should I show you any mercy when I'm damn sure that you haven't shown dozens of others the same?"

"I don't…know…I-"

The barrel poked her in the chest. "What makes you two so special that it was you who got to choose who lived and who died? Why _shouldn't_ I just blow you to kingdom come right now? And more importantly, tell me why I should let you two live when I'm sure you mercilessly killed so many without remorse!? Tell me dammit!"

Scarlet's eye's glassed over as she struggled to breath, her chest heaving. "I…-"

"Dorian!" He heard an unmistakable British accent flow into the room, "Let Blue get her pills, alright?"

Dorian clenched his jaw tightly, but he lowered the gun and looked Scarlet in the eyes before he turned his head away. "Alright," he then turned to Blue. "Her purse is downstairs by the television...well, what are you waiting for?" Blue nodded and pulled on his pants, fastening them as he ran out the bedroom with a limping gate.

Dorian's features were chiseled from stone as the area around his lips wrinkled to the deep frown that marred his face, along with around his eyes as he brought his brows down and blinked slowly. He sighed and sat down on the mattress, leaning forward as he rested his arms on his thighs, the gun was replaced into his pocket as his expression began to soften up a bit.

"Geeze, Dorian, you really know how to worry a good 'ol chap like myself. I was afraid that you were really going to kill them both over something as insignificant as them shaking up in your bedroom." He chuckled, pulling out a toothpick and placing it between his teeth.

"That's my toothpick…" Dorian grumbled slightly, turning his head to look back at the vixen, who loosened up noticeably, but her breathing was still heavy and labored. "And it wasn't just this…it was a culmination of things. The robberies committed by their boss. The repeated attempts on Carmelita's life by their boss, the fact that Blue used _me_ to try and kill her, and the fact that after all of the shit I've been through these past couple of months has all been caused by that man and his lackeys. The very fact that I had to save my enemies, risk my life and my career for you and some shadowy organization that I know nothing about…and for all intents and purposes can crawl up in a hole and fucking die for all I care…."

Dorian ran a paw through his hair and let out a deep sigh. "And the fact that Carmelita is nowhere to be found…and my car has been stolen…all of this shit has ruined my life and my career. It's those two," The ocelot jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards Scarlet and then to the door, "and their damn boss which has screwed me over so badly that I can only _wish_ that things could even return to some semblance of normalcy after all of this is over…"

Blue quickly came back into the room and gently placed the pills into Scarlet's mouth, giving her a glass of water and tilting it up for the liquid to pour into her mouth.

She swallowed the pills, Indigo stroking her neck to help it down with her shaking. Giving out a sigh of relief, Blue sat next to her as he glanced around for his box of cigarettes. Picking up his shirt from off the floor, he fished out a small wrapped stick of tobacco and placed it between his lips.

"You're planning on smoking that outside, right? I'd hate for Scarlet to have pleaded for your life only to have lost it because you wanted a smoke…in _my_ house." Blue froze as he heard Dorian's voice and the cold hammer click of Dorian's .22 caliber revolver, and then slowly nodded before he hesitated to ask.

"Do you have a lighter?" The feline nodded without making eye contact, moving his head to gesture towards the door.

"There's a book of matches in the first drawer in the kitchen to your left." As Blue sat up from the bed, he gave Scarlet a kiss before leaving the bedroom. A quiet "Sorry" left his lips as he passed Dorian on his way out of the room. Tom sighed and combed back his hair with a paw before setting it down on Dorian's shoulder.

"It's hard, I know. But it's all part of the healing process, I remember in my time when I had to accept a former enemy as an ally. But just remember; find a way to get your anger out without hurting anyone and things get better sooner, alright?" Dorian just kept looking out of the window, nothing but his quiet breathing was his response to Tom. Looking at Scarlet, he gave a somber grin and turned back to Dorian.

"Let's give the lady some privacy, alright?" The feline nodded and slowly sat up, taking a long look at Scarlet's face before leaving the room.

"You owe me…" Dorian said without much emotion, and his words could have been directed at any of the people in the room, and even Blue, who was heading down stairs, heard the ocelot's last comment. It made all three of them wonder how exactly this was going to play out.

* * *

Murray grunted as snow blasted against his body. He pushed hard to slide the metal doors open to their fullest as he ran back inside with the doors still ajar. Soon, the roar of some mechanical behemoth rumbled the ground as a giant vehicle burst forth from the facility and onto the snow. The Arctic Traversarial Vehicle or ATV burst through snow drifts and crunched against snow and ice, tearing down with its treaded wheels. Two smaller trailers were hitched to the back, one for the food storage, and another for the fuel for extended travel and survival.

Sly glanced out the window in awe as they barreled through the snow as if it was made of melted butter. He let forth a sharp whistle. "Bentley, I know I'll just keep repeating myself, but you've really outdone yourself this time." The turtle adjusted his glasses and grinned.

"Why thank you, I pride myself on this little beauty of ours. Of course it couldn't have been done without Penelope and Murray's help." Bentley continued typing out furiously on his computer equipment as to pinpoint the exact location of where they were and their destination. Penelope sat next to the heater system, she wasn't built for this kind of weather and she still felt a little chill through the insulated walls of the vehicle. Murray was busy driving, looking fondly at all the glowing buttons and wondering just what they were all for.

Carmelita stood near Murray's weightlifting equipment in the gym section and stared longingly towards it. Sly walked towards the vixen and placed a paw on her shoulder. "I'm sure he won't mind if you use them." The fox crossed her arms and nodded slightly.

"Yes, but I'd feel better if I asked first. I just need something to do, I'm too anxious for what's coming." He rested his chin on her shoulder for a moment as he rubbed her other shoulder with his paw, slowly worming his way into her curly dark hair.

"It'll be ok," he whispered.

"How can you be so sure?" She felt his head slowly turn from left to right.

"I'm not, but throughout life, I've seen impossible things done by the talented group of animals that are sitting right behind us. I would pick them over any special ops team any day."

"Hmm...Ever consider a military career, ringtail?" The raccoon could only laugh at this.

"Could you honestly see me with a shaved head and fatigues? Besides, I'm not one for guns; I've had more than my fair share of them pointed at me."

"You would be a natural for the Special Forces, you're already at top physical condition, you've got good problem solving skills, and all you really lack is discipline."

"But that's where you come in," he said, placing a paw on her firm stomach. She smiled but withdrew.

"Now's not the time," she whispered. "But don't think it puts you off, there's a time and a place for everything. And when that time comes, you're all mine." Cooper chuckled, burying his muzzle deeper into her hair and inhaling.

* * *

"Yes...yes of course sir, I have the highest respect and admiration to our organization and the work it does, it's just...yes...yes it is but...no...No, sir, they don't." The conversation carried on like this for long enough for the jackal to deposit another coin four more times into the greedy phone booth. Dorian leaned against the side of a brick laden building, his arms folded and his eyes facing down. Indigo was busy with a smoking cigarette hanging from his lips, his sharp eyebrows cocked in a mix between somewhat conscientious to his surroundings and one of a nonchalant manner. Scarlet dabbed her face with a pad speckled in a pale colored dust.

What happened in his bedroom seemed to have already disappeared from their minds; as if nothing ever happened. This troubled the ocelot slightly, but he didn't let it get to him. Just as long as they got the message, he could move on.

Dorian glanced to her and she automatically felt his gaze on her, causing her emerald eyes to shift to her left for a moment before looking back to her small mirror. "It's impolite to stare."

"Don't talk manners to me; you are in no positionto. And I'm just curious..." Clapping her mirror shut, the fox turned to look at the ocelot and slipped the circular device into her purse.

"Speak," she said with a wave of her paw.

"And I'm the impolite one..." he whispered, yet Scarlet could hear it, giving no indication she had. "I was curios, I see many women who are very attractiveand have a pretty face dabbing that dust on their faces or drawing around their eyelids and on their lips. The thing I'm curious about is why you do this. Why go through the hassle of painting your face when the one underneath it is much better than the fake one you put on?"

Scarlet blinked slowly at this before glancing at Blue who was standing against the phone booth. "Why, you ask?" Dorian nodded and twirled his fingers in a circular motion in order to gesture his impatience. "Because it's what we women do. You've only ever seen me with make-up on, of course you're going to say I'm already pretty or I don't need it, but you men truly don't know."

"So, you're saying underneath it all, you really have no looks?" Scarlet blinked once more to this, about to open her mouth before she was cut off. "That's the biggest load of shit I've ever heard, saying you have no natural beauty. I'm sure Blue's seen you without make-up plenty of times to know what you really are underneath. Powder isn't thick enough to hide all of what your face is really like. I never met a woman who didn't know they were beautiful."

"Gents, and my lady," Tom's voice came from the background, causing Dorian and Scarlet to devoid from their previous conversation for the moment. Scarlet sealed the deal of resuming the conversation for another time with a swift wink of her eye and the pucker of her lips. "Now then-

"What's the plan?" Blue's interruption caused Tom to roll his eyes and turn to the Malamute.

"I was getting to that...my boss has gone a little looney and wants me to execute you all on the spot to halt any of you from talking to the wrong people."

All three people other than Tom tensed up dramatically, and Dorian's paws grasped his pistol, pulling the firearm out of it's holster; the Glock 21C's polymer housing making itself known. "Is that so?"

Tom held his paws up in front of him defensively,"Personally...I've already broken regulations once, so I might as well do so again. I talked him out of this and he agreed to allow you to assist me in my objective without having you too involved to know too much."

"Why not just execute us? What is it to you that we are any value to your cause? It would be so much easier for you to just kill us and put your worries to rest. Who's to say you won't double-cross us?" Scarlet folded her arms and eyed Tom. The jackal simply smiled.

"Because my dear, not only will you help me, but I'm running low on ammunition as it is. You're just going to have to take my word for it." The vixen didn't find the animal's sense of humor very appealing as she kept her face a neutral expressionless mask. "First order of business, we should be locating the Colonel with the utmost discretion. Blue, Crimson, anything you can tell us to shed some light on your dark ex-boss?" Blue and Scarlet glanced at one another for a moment.

"Coal is here," Scarlet proclaimed. Both Tom and Dorian's eyes grew larger at this.

"He is here? Right here in Paris?"

"Correct," Blue chimed in. "He has been operating close by because most of his assassins reside here in France, as well as being able to accurately calculate Miss Fox's movements."

"This is good, this is very good. Do you know of his exact location?"

Blue and Crimson glanced at one another again. "Unfortunately no, we never met with him at his establishment, only by phone or a rendezvous point. But we do know he is in this city."

"And me without a bloody team to search this city," the jackal muttered under his breath, scratching his chin in thought. He hummed a moment before his finger's snapped. "I think I have a solution." Dorian remained quiet, studying more on his surroundings than the conversation; moving the Glock from out in the open to the inside of his coat; his trench coat hiding the weapon from view. He became far too paranoid to focus on one subject anymore with every corner he turned into to be another death trap.

"Our first order of business is to track down a dear friend of mine. He has been out in the field of this city for the last few months now. He has actually been keeping tabs on you two as well. If anyone has any Intel on Coal's whereabouts, it's Lucius." The jackal straightened the collar of his coat and walked past the rest of the group, turning back to see that they weren't following.

"Coming?" Blue and Scarlet looked at one another, able to read each other's responses by their eyes as they each gave a subtle signal of what they should do. Both nodded slightly and walked in behind Tom. Dorian's gaze was fixated to the top of a skyscraper as he thought he had seen just a flicker of movement or a dark silhouette. Glancing to the rest of the pack, he took one last look before joining the rest of the herd that was led by the golden jackal.

Atop the seemingly limitless height of the structure, a tall, slim figure stood at the very edge, even the slightest of gusts could cause him to tumble forward and plummet to certain death. Yet the figure remained ridged, not a single coil of wind disturbing the flaps of his clothing to flutter in the wind. A deep sigh sounded with a cascade of silvery smoke bellowing from his open mouth. An ethereal paw moved up to push the frameless glasses up the brim of the albino weasel's nose. Blinking his empty white eyes, he watched the city for a moment longer before giving a soft _"hmpf"_.

Taking a step forward, his foot caught only open air as he plummeted down the building side, his body giving off no reflection to the glass windows as he fell._ "They are coming."_

* * *

An otherworldly chill ran down the spine of the ominous dark shrouded man who sat behind his desk. Colonel shifted his hallow black eyes across the wood surface of his desk and to the small panel which held his laptop within. Clicking a button under the table, the panel slid open and the computer lifted up to reveal itself. Clicking a few buttons with his left paw, he picked up the phone to his right and began dialing. A few short moments later and a voice came in clearly from the other side of the line.

"This is Kirill," the voice that was deep and jagged from what seemed like countless battles filled the boss's ears.

"Kirill...this is Coal."

"Mr. Black, it warms me to see you contacting me. Is there something you wish to discuss?"

"It is about the security in our location in Siberia. I want you to double it, whatever you have to keep outside forces away from it, implement. I want not a single unauthorized solicitor entering that complex."

"Certainly sir, this will give us a good time to use the landmines you sent to us. The snow is dropping thick here, a good cover for the explosives. I'll also keep a few teams out surveying the area for anything out of the ordinary."

"Good, I want nothing to halt our operations any longer; my men are already beginning to run low on armaments thanks to the efforts of the Cooper gang. You did get the description I sent you?" After a slight pause, there was a response, followed by an avalanche of background noise.

"Of course, sir, the raccoon's face has been burned into the minds of all my men here, we will know exactly who he is if he ever shows his face."

"When he shows his face. It isn't a matter of if he appears to you; it is a matter of when. He will be coming to you, and you will be ready. If I find that things became unfortunate for you, and I find that you are still alive, I will do far worse than giving you the luxury of a bullet through your head. Do I make myself clear to you, Kirill?" A long pause, the background noises began to fade and the voice on the other end seemed to carry a bit of heat behind its words.

"Transparently clear, sir." With that, the line was cut off and Coal Black replaced the phone on the small device that sank into the desk and was concealed by the thin hickory sheet that slid over the square hole on his desk. A few more minutes of typing, the glowing monitor revealing the long fingers that rapped against the plastic keys as his hallow black irises darted back and forth to what was transpiring on the lit up screen. He scratched the side of his head, moving his fingers up to his hair and resting his palm on the back of his head, just above his neck where he rubbed.

"Ivory...haunting my thoughts again are we?" He spoke into the seething darkness he was constantly shrouded in, not expecting a voice to respond. Yet that was exactly what he received.

"_Your sixth sense always amazed me, my long time friend. I sometimes need to recollect just who the medium of our little group was at times." _Black merely blinked as he felt a chilling presence materialize from behind him. An unnatural mist wafted from behind him as its ethereal tendrils began coiling and sliding across the surfaces of the desk and around Black's face. _"You seem troubled...yes, very troubled."_

"I wasn't expecting a conversation to take place from the other world." A chuckle made from shattering glass emitted from deep within the deceased weasel's throat as silvery smoke bellowed out of his mouth. In the blink of an eye, the ghostly animal was hovering in front of Black's face, suspended upside down in the air as he stared into his former boss's eyes with his pure white irises.

"_The other world...beyond the grave, heaven, hell, it is all a fairy tale my dear Coal. Something people try to convince themselves to explain the unexplainable. Truth is, the dead have little to do with the lives of the living...otherwise you would see the many spirits of those whose lives were taken all around you. It would be commonplace to see ghosts." _

"What is it you want, Ivory?" The weasel pushed the frames of his glasses farther up his nose. Even from hanging upside down, the glasses remained firm on his snout, even the flaps of his coat remained still and ridged.

"_You seem unfazed by my visit; your heart beat is rather calm. I have become so used to hearing the delightful symphony of a rapid heartbeat." _He began clapping his paws together to simulate a steadily racing pulse rate. _"The rhythm can be quite...breathtaking, if I had the breath to be taken that is." _

"I've had my fair share of ghosts over the years. But never did I think that you would soon be joining among them. Lost and confused fools of ancient times past."

"_Oh but there are more recent spirits that walk with your footsteps, my friend," _Ivory said as he slowly rotated in the air until he was sitting atop of Black's desk, his legs crossed. _"They wish to see you dearly. The desire they feel in their once beating hearts is thick, like the fluid that runs through your veins." _

"Just answer my question, White. And before you ask, yes...it is nice to see you again...in a sense."

"_Yes, a man's senses are all they really can trust now a days. Why I came to visit you....why I came to visit you...hmmm. Are you aware that things have been going awry as of lately?" _

"I've had to put many of my employees to death over all of this commotion, yes. You would know that more intimately than I, I assume."

"_What would you do if I were to tell you that a conspiracy was taking place to bring your syndicate's operations to an abrupt halt? Namely, the immediate disposal of you?" _Black slowly stood up from his chair.

"I would ask you how you've acquired this tidbit of information." White's smile stretched farther across his lips.

"_You know of your young apprentice Pyrite Gold, yes? I have been watching the boy, with a very interested eye. He has quite the odds stacked against him for a long life for such a young soul. He is not as accurate with a six gun as he was to let you assume." _

"Elaborate, I'm growing impatient and I have much work to be getting to."

"_He has failed, Coal!" _As White quickly blurted out his statement, he quickly moved his face until it was a merely an inch away from that of Black's, giving the crime lord no choice but to look into the featureless white orbs that bore no color nor pupils. _"He has failed to eliminate Blue and Crimson, instead siding with that of the Regulators, the group that has been hunting for you for nearly four decades now. I believe you are already acquainted with one of their lead agents?"_

"Agent thirty-three...you mean 'Tom' is here, in Paris? And that Blue and Crimson are with him?"

"_Blue, Crimson, and one Constable Dorian Booker of Interpol. Better known as the partner of Inspector Carmelita Fox." _Black's claws slowly dug into the hickory wood of his desk as he was being told this.

"How much do they know?"

"_Enough to know that they will not be purchasing any airline tickets out of the country I'm afraid. They do however know nothing of your current location, only that you are in Paris." _

"Do they know of the main operation? Do they know of what my intentions with Clockwerk are?"

"_They no nothing of the project, as far as my knowledge grants me. Tom has no true knowledge of it either, only that you are rebuilding Clockwerk, the enemy of the Cooper Clan."_

"The Cooper Clan," Black huffed. "They have no idea who their true enemy really is. I remember fondly my younger days...the days when the Cooper name was only just beginning to appear in the historical archives...but that was ancient history." Combing his fingers through his hair, he pulled out a cigar from its foil sleeve and struck a match, waving the flame back and forth to evenly coat the tip with burning red embers.

"_Just how old are you really, dear Coal? When I first was acquainted with you, my powers were already developed enough to know that you had a very weathered spirit, one who has seen countless years, many spent in times of conflict. You appeared to me like that of a man in his mid to late forties...yet I feel many, many more years behind this mask you hide behind." _

"As I said earlier my old friend, it's ancient history."

* * *

"No, hold it more like this. Keep the blade straight." Scarlet positioned Dorian's finger's on the handle of the knife he grasped and found how natural it felt in his paw. A day had passed, Tom finding little to no luck of finding Lucius. The rest thought that the jackal was wasting time on someone who probably wasn't in the country any longer. The Englishman would always simply smile and say "Perhaps I cannot find him because he wishes to not be found at the moment."

Implying that he would appear when the time was right, Tom continued searching for clues of both his ally and the whereabouts of Coal. The others took to spending their time preparing for what was coming. Blue had converted the basement into a chemist's wet dream of a laboratory as he mixed chemicals to his deadly concoctions as well as experimenting new mixtures on plants. Of course, the ocelot who owned the house didn't know it was there because Dorian and Scarlet had taken to helping one another on individual skills of combat. Dorian with knives, and Scarlet with something blew up his basement, Dorian would rescue the malamute; nurse him back to health just so he could kill the dog with his own paws.

As she finished with Dorian's paw, she placed her own knife into hers and they took a stance. The ocelot shook his head to all of this for the tenth time. "This is insane, practicing with real knives without any protection!"

"You want to get good? Then listen to your teacher. You won't learn anything quickly with wooden knives and the safety of padded armor. Now, come on, let's see if you were really paying attention to my lectures." Dorian groaned and loosened up, shaking his arms for a moment before stiffening up and taking a stance. He slowly circled Scarlet who did the same, the feline trying to mimic her technique.

He sprinted forward, giving with a wide sweep from left to right, and then following up with an upward slash, both sweeps missing her completely. Dorian recovered from her dodges and lunged at her with a hard stab, throwing his weight into his shoulder to propel his paw with alarming speed. Not being able to dodge, Scarlet drew the blade up and halted Dorian's attacks. Pushing against one another's knives, their collective attention was adverted as they glanced down to the staircase that led down to the basement. What sounded like a loud explosion rocked the house as Indigo burst from a wall of smoke as he escaped the confines of the basement.

He coughed and waved his arms in the air to fan away the odor as he stomped up the stairs. Scarlet looked back to Dorian and brought a knee to his gut, causing him to bend over which she then grabbed him by the shoulders and tossed him onto the ground. "Don't get distracted," she chided, bending down as she smiled at Dorian on the floor. The ocelot eyed the vixen's chest for a moment while he was on the floor, getting an eyeful of cleavage from her low cut top. She crossed her arms for a moment, enjoying the attention until she offered a paw for him.

"What in the world was that, darling?" Blue coughed and shook his head, cupping a paw to his ear.

"What?!" Scarlet sighed and brought her lips to his ear, then in a higher tone of voice.

"What the hell happened?!"

"Ow...no need to shout, sweetheart. I was testing a new formula of mine; I was inspired by the chemical reactions used in nitroglycerin."

"What happened to my basement!?" Both animals turned to see Dorian staring at the wall of thick smoke as he waved it away, finding the walls were caked in black. "Indigo!"

"As I was explaining," Blue said as he switched his attention from Dorian back to Scarlet. **"**I wanted to create a more manageable way of transporting the destructive powers of nitroglycerin. I also wanted supply to be easily carried when on the field without worrying of a premature explosion caused by it tousling around too much or from being in direct sunlight. As I was experimenting, I discovered that when the liquid was heated it...well it produced a very deadly nitrogen dioxide gas and increased the explosion rate of the chemical, but as the gas was filtered out, I found that the liquid was a lot more docile. I was able to put it inside a sealed test tube and began shaking it vigorously as well as exposing it to UV rays for almost ten minutes.**"**

Dorian listened as his heart was broken in two as the basement was his sanctuary of all things male and manly, and the ocelot could literally see the lists of costs and repairs fly across his vision.** "**After that, I was able to freeze it to keep it in a controlled state and slow down the process, but never did I expect to work so well in such high temperatures."

"If it's so docile," Dorian spoke through coughs as he reemerged from the smoke filled basement. "Then what was that explosion we heard just a moment ago?"

"Well...there may have been a few stray particles of nitrogen dioxide in the air that the filter might have missed. But count your blessings, it's a miracle you still have a basement down there. As a matter of fact...it is a miracle! I need to make notes of this!"

"Aw no, you're not going anywhere near my basement. Or my kitchen. Or anywhere else you might have the ability to set up one of those fucking labs! You are going to scrub my wall clean, pay for _all_ of the repairs, and if God likes you enough, maybe my family heirlooms won't be damaged. Capiche'?" Dorian said this last part as it was accompanied by a loud, definitely noticeable 'click' of a Glock 21C's hammer being pulled back. "And count yourself lucky. If Scarlet hadn't of kicked me in the gut, I would have run you through with this knife she was so happy to give me….over…and over…and over again."

"Very well, I respect your hospitality and your authority; it is your home after all. Well....since my schedule has suddenly been cleared up, what are you two up to?" Scarlet picked the knife up from off the floor and handed it to Dorian, watching him carefully as he took hold of the weapon.

"Practicing." Blue quirked a brow and sat on the loveseat, turning it around to get a better view.

"Taking up an apprentice, sweetheart? Exhilarating, I think I'll watch." The vixen grinned at Blue as she turned back to Dorian.

"Remember to say 'time out' when you wish to stop, otherwise I'll be flipping you back onto your ass again." Dorian gave a sarcastic grin along with a winded chuckle.

"You are so generous, sensei. Shall I paint the fence and wax the car after this?" Scarlet merely coiled back her fingers in a gesture for Dorian to follow up with an attack to back up his words. He lunged forward, using his long limbs and wide sweeps to keep Scarlet at distance, yet still being within range to strike. His reach was superior, but Scarlet had years of experience and better agility, even surpassing the natural finesse of the feline.

Blue watched intently as his eyes darted back and forth to the rather graceful dance of death the two animals preformed. A quick slash and Dorian's sleeve was ripped, a small cut gracing his shoulder. He hissed slightly and drew back. Scarlet chuckled and bent down lower to better accentuate her heaving bosom. "Ready to quit are we?" With a grunt, he shook off the pain as he charged forward, another long sweep with a turn as he spun around, swinging the blade along with him.

She deflected the blow and followed up by sliding the blade across his and trailed up to cut at his face. Reeling back, he gasped as he saw that she was intending to kill. "Are you crazy?!"

"If you don't have the intention of killing, you won't be as driven. Having your own little personal goal can affect a lot of factors in the fight. Implement whatever means you can." The feline gritted his teeth and instead of flowing forward, simply waited as he slowly circled around Scarlet. As they stared at one another, Dorian couldn't help but begin to smile.

All the subtle hints each one gave to the other, it was apparent as the sun in the sky. They respected one another. Scarlet returned the smile as they both stepped forward at once, a quick sweep that clanged against each other, causing them to step back and then step forward once more. Attacking and withdrawing, quickly switching from offensive to defensive. Blue watched with great interest, seeing multiple cuts starting to appear on both animal's torsos, arms, and even a small cut across Dorian's cheek.

They both charged, Dorian quickly stepping to the side and dodging Scarlet's stab. She was caught off guard as her arm sailed just over his shoulder when he rammed into her stomach, pushing her farther down as he brought a fist up, catching her in the jaw. He felt vile for upper cutting a woman, even so much as he heard her yelp in pain. Yet the blood lust he felt was making him see only an enemy instead of the gorgeous woman in red. She reeled back, wiping her lips with the back of her paw, licking the red splotches that melted in with her red fur.

Smiling, she flashed her venomous emerald eyes. "Now you finally listen to me." Diving forward, she rolled across the floor, shooting her legs out to slam into his sternum until the rolled farther until she sprung back onto her feet. Dorian grunted as he hit the ground hard, but quickly shot his foot out, catching Scarlet in the shin and bringing her to a kneeling position. Slashing at her, she diverted the attack by pushing it away with her own blade, yet the tip nicked the left strap of her top. Smirking, she winked at him as she circled around again.

"And you'll tell me you weren't aiming for that." Dorian brought his paws up and smiled, circling slowly around with Scarlet. Blue was feeling a little warm as his eyes were beginning to shake within his skull. Standing up, he lifted a paw and halted the festivities.

"Before someone gets killed, I think we should stop for the day." It wasn't until then did the two stop to examine their bodies to see just how decrepit they were. Open, trickling wounds ran up and down their arms and around their chest. Scarlet didn't seem as serious, but the blood was effortlessly hidden within her blazing fur. The center of her white tummy was splotched with crimson however, along with trails slithering down her chest.

"Alright," Dorian chuckled. "I'm done for the day." He hissed as the adrenaline wore off as his legs were reduced to noodles. He slowly walked up to Scarlet and bowed slightly. "Thanks for this, Scarlet. I really appreciate it." The fox smiled somewhat seductively as she planted a kiss on his cheek, causing his eyes to flutter for a moment.

She began walking up the stairs, stopping to look back as she rested a paw on the railing. "Come on, I need someone to stitch me up." Dorian glanced at Blue who sighed and jerked his head towards the female.

"She's all yours, lawman." The front door flew open and startled everyone in the room. Blue had already flipped out one of the pistols that were stuffed up inside his sleeve while Dorian and Scarlet tensed up. Tom struggled as he dragged a bloodied blank panther into the living room.

"We have wounded here, get some medical supplies!" Quickly, Dorian and Blue helped the jackal carry the bloodied feline and helped him onto the couch. The panther was conscious as he coughed and clutched his crimson splattered midsection. Breathing hard, he cringed to the sharp pains as he waited for Scarlet to return with the first aid kit. "Thank God I've had experience in this, there's no bloody way we'll be getting you to a hospital, my friend."

"Just get the bullet out..." he groaned. Scarlet took the liberty of fulfilling Lucius' wishes by easing her edged weapon into the hole of his midsection, probing the wound until a bullet was flicked out of his stomach.

"Hmm, nothing too serious, all major organs are intact. You're one lucky fellow it didn't punch a hole through your stomach, otherwise we'd have your insides being eaten away from the acid pouring forth along with-

"Just fucking fix me you crazy son of a-

His words fell short as he began feeling nauseous. Tom checked his wrist for a pulse. He was still alive, but the blood loss was beginning to affect him. "His pulse is irregular. Someone get me a light, I'll have to stitch him up quick! Oh," he said as he glanced to the others. "Everyone, this is Lucius. Lucius, everyone." A black furred paw clutched Tom's collar as Lucius pulled the jackal's snout near his.

"Fix...me..." he rasped. He nodded and plucked each finger off his neck as Blue retrieved a lamp and positioned the pose able lantern as Tom was handed a needle and thread.

"So what happened?" Blue's question caused both Tom's and Lucius' ears to flicker. The jackal, beginning to pierce the skin, spoke as he maintained focus.

"It was an ambush. Coal's men are on to us." Dorian's eyes grew large along with Scarlet's and Indigo's. Lucius coughed and grunted as he reached up and clutched Tom's shoulder.

"It's not too serious...is it?"

"You'll be fine; I've spent many years stitching my own wounds when out in the field. Why, I remembered the time I was out in the middle of the Arabian Desert. I got myself a rather dreadful cut across the arm and with nothing to use. I found a cactus after about a few miles of hiking when I was able to cut down a stalk and pulled out enough fiber to make myself a thread. Then, breaking off a needle, I was able to sew myself up enough to keep the blood in. Damn good timing if I say so myself as I would have probably had to get my whole arm amputated the way the wound was starting to inflame and become infected."

"Alright, I really don't want to hear this right now. Just fix me and we can get on with things."

"How did Coal know we are after him?" Dorian questioned. Tom shook his head as he hissed out a frustrated sigh.

"The man has eyes and ears everywhere these days it seems. I cannot believe how much of his influence has spread over the years. The French prime minister might as well hand over the keys to the man. Then again...he probably already has slithered into political territory." Lucius coughed once more, sucking in a breath and reaching into the back of his suit.

"Scarlet..." his rasp caused the vixen to glance towards him. "Scarlet Crimson...I have a message for you...from your brother." He pulled out a small note and slowly pushed it into Scarlet's paw.

"From Roy?" The panther nodded somberly. Unfolding the parchment, her irises shifted from left to right slowly as she dissected every single word and kept it imprinted into her mind's eye. "So...he knew well before any of us did. Coal was going to kill us all. Not just me and Indigo." Her eyes soon shrank to pinholes as she gasped and quickly shot her gaze to Lucius.

"He gave you this to give to me, to tell me that we should have left as soon as possible, coming to your side as he did. But..." She paused as she licked her lips. "Lucius, where is my brother? Where's Roy?" The panther blinked hard as he glanced away, slowly drawing in a breath.

"Colonel was able to get to him before me..." The vixen went ridged as her eyes grew, glossing over with tears that collected on the corners of her eyes. "I'm sorry, Scarlet." The vixen sighed as she turned and walked away, Blue following close behind. Dorian watched them both depart with a somber expression etched into his features. The world seemed to grow silent; no sound was heard from inside, or even from the immediate outside of the house.

"I'm afraid that's the least of our concerns, Constable," Tom said as he continued to stare at his work on Lucius' stomach. "As we fled, Lucius relayed what information he gathered from Coal's compound to me." Dorian leaned forward a bit as he drew his eyes away from the gloom riddled Scarlet that Blue helped escort upstairs.

"What's the situation?" The jackal closed his eyes and stopped his paws from moving for a moment until he reopened them and began working again. "I'm afraid things are going to turn rather unfortunate for Sly Cooper and Inspector Fox."


	22. What do you Know?

**Chapter 22**

**What do you Know?**

* * *

**T**he storm had not ceased, not after nearly a week of trudging through the snow. They had reached their destination ahead of the estimated time, yet that was only half the battle won. Sly stood outside of the protective hull of the ATV, bundled in his coat as he let the wind whip against him. Wiping the white crust from his goggle lens, he kept his paws stuffed in his pockets as he slowly scanned his vision across the vast white wasteland. Colonel was a true visionary; Cooper had to admit, hiding a manufacturing plant in the middle of a frozen desert.

If they weren't enemies, he would have admired the man for his ingenuity, the harsh weather being more effective then any sophisticated technical security system. But he wasn't ruling anything out. The weather was harsh and unforgiving, but someone with Colonel's intellect wouldn't let anything go to chance. Sly had a certain sense of things when it came to matters such as security. He had a feeling, a certain paranoia that Colonel might have set up a system of cameras and a digital image device in order to keep an eye over his many branches of his criminal empire.

Searching the entire area, the gang wasn't even completely sure Colonel's factory was even located here. They had gone on a hunch; Bentley mentioning numerous times that there was a lot of activity located to the far east. They were about as far east as they could be without falling into the ocean and Sly only saw white. The only true sign of life they had seen during their trek was a group of huskies, runners hired to risking their lives in order to transport supplies to the small settlements across the landscape. What a job that would be, Sly thought to himself, but he knew he was far from being even adequate to the job specifications.

Not only was his lithe form unable to harsh the storm like that of the thick furred and heavily muscled bodies of a husky, but he would have been lost in this storm without a canine's powerful nose. With what Russian he knew, the gang wasn't able to glean much from the runners other than that they have been seeing many routes to the east. That certainly brightened up Bentley's disposition of his hunch when he heard this as they made a beeline for the east. Now however, Sly couldn't help but feel somewhat saddened that Bentley might have guessed wrong for the first time in his life. A sudden flicker of movement caught the raccoon's attention.

It was very sudden, and dampened by the swirling white dust in the air, but there was no mistake that there was in fact movement. Cupping his gloved paws around the visor of his goggles, he made out a slight blob of shadows as they seemed to be moving slowly in his direction. He thought perhaps that they were misplaced runners, lost in the blizzard from their shipping route. Or perhaps travelers like he and his gang were. It wasn't until a loud bang pierced through the wind was Sly's suspicion put to rest.

A bullet smacked against the armored hull of the ATV behind him, causing Sly to move farther down, closer to the transport. Clambering up to the roof and opening the hatch, he dove into the vehicle and shook those awake from their slumber. "Wake up, everyone wake up! There's a problem!" Bentley snorted as he was disturbed of his sleep as Carmelita simply groaned and swatted Sly's paws away. Murray awoke with a start as he gripped the steering wheel and snapped his eyes open, fully alert.

"Wha-what's going on? Sly, what's the problem?" Bentley drew a fist to his mouth to stifle a yawn as he jumped from hearing another bullet chip at the hull outside of the ATV.

"I think we're close to Colonel's compound." He would have smirked, but time called for urgency as he shook Carmelita awake. Braving her wrath from being disturbed, Sly assisted Murray on driving as Bentley fired up his monitors.

"Wait..." he said, stretching out a hand in Murray's direction. "My monitors are picking up some strange readings in the snow." Carmelita leaned over Bentley's shoulder to look into the computer screen.

"They look like...like disks in the snow. Disks...HIPPO, STOP THE TANK!" Murray slammed on the brakes, turning back to glance behind the seat.

"What's up? You want me to drive or stop? Make up your minds!"

"Don't you dare move this vehicle, you got that?!" Murray shrank away from the intimidating female as she looked through the windshield onto the snowy ground. She squinted until giving up and going for the ladder, unlatching the circular hatch on the tank's ceiling. Sly clutched her wrist and pulled her back.

"Are you crazy? They'll shoot you the second you stick your head out of the hatch!"

"Let go of me, Cooper. They can't see their nose in front of their faces, let alone shoot anyone from the distance we are from them. I have to see out there." Sly reluctantly slid his fingers off her wrist as he watched her step out onto the top of the tank. He followed suit, finding her atop the vehicle, staring out near the ground in front of them.

"Do you see them?" Cooper glanced from the vixen to the ground where she was watching with attentiveness. The raccoon's ears flickered to the sound of whizzing bullets, letting out a mental sigh of relief as the tank had moved well out of range from their assault. Cooper's brows furrowed as he noticed the small glimpse of a metallic disk object buried in the snow.

"Yeah...I see them. What do we do?" The vixen shook her head, her ebony curls swaying along with the wind. She crawled back down into the ATV, followed by the master thief as they informed the others of their situation.

"Is it bad?" Bentley seemed to be very anxious as he rocked slightly back and forth from his seat on his wheelchair. Sly shook his head.

"Landmines," he said nonchalantly. "Told you they'd find us first."

"Well isn't this just spectacular. If we didn't have those gunmen out there, I could attempt to disarm the mines. But, not only do I not have the proper equipment for that, but there's always a chance we might stumble on another mine that the scanners hadn't picked up. There could be hundreds out there buried in the snow. They are probably proximity sensitive as well, with what money the Colonel's organization has amassed over the years, I'm surprised the mines haven't gone off by now."

"Calm down, we still have an advantage. The mines are scattered all over, Colonel's men might not have knowledge to where they placed every individual explosive. They can't get to us or they'll risk blowing themselves up. And this hull seems thick enough to handle whatever they're throwing at us."

"So we just sit and wait?" Sly pressed his lips tighter together as he attempted to figure out a plan. Shrugging his shoulders and coming to a conclusion.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but we just have to sit and wait it out. The storm won't be letting up anytime soon, not even if they were huskies would they be able to survive out here too long." Sly took a chair and rested his feet atop the dashboard next to the driver's steering wheel. Soon enough, the muffled explosions of gunfire began to dissipate off into the distance. The gang remained quiet for what seemed like hours, not one muttering a word.

They were on pins and needles, each one wanting so desperately to take a peak out of the hatch to see if any hostiles lay in wait for them. After about another hour, Cooper finally sat up and grasped onto the metal bar of the first ladder step. Scaling the ladder, he unlatched the hatch and pushed it open, the metal door flinging open and clanking against the top of the tank a few times. Scanning his gaze across the white landscape, he saw no flicker of movement in the distance, no flashes of light from the muzzle of a rifle, no bangs of gunfire. Stepping fully out of the hatch, he carefully placed his feet upon the crunching snow and he took a few steps to the starboard side of the ATV.

Though he was walking against the wind, a slow stream of perspiration drizzled down his brow as he carefully maneuvered his feet to bypass the landmines, not knowing how close he could get by them before the ground sensors picked up his signal. As he lifted his foot, he abruptly stopped as he glanced down. Right below his booted sole was the circular visage of an explosive, a small red light blinking upon its face, indicating that it was very much active. Slowly backing away, he blew out the breath in his lungs, a cloud of fog escaping from his muzzle. Walking farther away from thee more closely positioned traps, he found a small clearing to better survey the area without having to glance down only at the immediate ground below his feet.

Despite the howling winds, he heard a soft rustling from behind him and he quickly swung around, only for a rifle's stock to smack into his jaw. A husky covered in arctic survival equipment clawed his way out of the cocoon of snow that covered his body as he clutched the raccoon by the collar and lifted him up from the ground. Three more bodies emerged from the snow, shaking themselves free of the powder as they brought their collective barrels to stare towards the raccoon's head. The one who held him up just above the ground pulled the goggles from his ice blue eyes and narrowed his gaze to Cooper. "Sly Cooper?"

He winced to the moving of his jaw as he formed words. "Yes," he said, though his accent made his Russian rather weak sounding. "Out sampling the winter air, eh comrades?" Each dog hacked and wheezed in laughter as the husky brought a fist to bury into Sly's stomach.

"Funny man," he said in English. "Sly Cooper, you'll come with us to the compound. But first order of business, you'll let us into your vehicle, yes?" He glanced towards the ATV that sat perched on the horizon and then back to the husky as he pulled off the cloth he wore over his muzzle. The canine clenched his fangs and asked again, a more demanding tone that added an air of intimidation to his already deep toned voice and guttural accent.

"You'll get us in there, now!" Bringing another fist into Sly's stomach as he shouted, Cooper coughed and gagged until he was dragged towards the vehicle. The group took extra precaution during their trek, following the footprints of Cooper's trail in order to negate any undesirable surprises. The husky hefted Cooper onto his shoulder as he clambered up onto the roof. He tossed Cooper near the hatch and ordered him to open it. The master thief shook his head.

"It only opens from the inside," he rasped. The husky rolled his eyes and stomped on the hatch.

"Speak," he ordered, shoving the barrel of his gun into Sly's snout. He cleared his throat and swallowed hard for what he was about to do.

"Carmelita, Bentley, someone open the hatch, quickly!" A noise came from under the metal door until it was flung open, a head full of dark blue curls popping out to meet the gaze of Cooper.

"Sly, is everything...your jaw! What happened?" As she cupped her paws against both sides of his face, she glanced up to see the other three huskies step onto the ATV. She remained still, slowly walking down the ladder and into the vehicle, followed by Sly and the arctic patrol team.

"Cooper gang, you all will be coming with us."

"It's 'you will all be coming with us' numbskull." Carmelita's retort caused the lead dog's ears to draw back. The one to his left raised his rifle to the vixen and pulled back on the bolt action, loading a fresh cartridge into the chamber. The lead dog placed a paw on the barrel and slowly pushed the gun down.

"Mincov will turn you into rug if they are killed. We can do with what we please, once we reach headquarters." The other dog grunted with a wordless nod and switched the safety on his rifle. "All of you come with us."

"I'd like to see ya try," Murray said, cracking his knuckles as the leather of his gloves stretched. The lead husky glanced towards the hippo in the back and pulled back the hood of his coat, unzipping the bulky article of clothing as he loosened up his body.

"You insist." Murray wound up and quickly charged, only for the dog to step to the left, clutch Murray's arm, and fling him forward. The hippo's inertia carried him as he flew through the air and flipped, somersaulting onto his back. He had little time to regain his footing as a boot sole connected with the side of his head, knocking him unconscious. Rolling his shoulders, her retrieved his jacket from the floor and motioned for two of the dogs to carry the large hippo.

"Anymore want to try?" Everyone else remained silent. "Go topside, now. And bring coats; it's a bit of walking out there."

"Walk?" Carmelita glanced to Sly who shook his head in puzzlement. "You're telling me you walked all the way out here in this weather?"

"Course, saves gas. And headquarters is only a good three miles. No more questions. Move now." As they were filed out of the vehicle, each animal's paws were bound and their eyesight clouded from blindfolds. Only the sounds of crunching snow and the occasional nudge from behind them was their only source of direction until Sly felt his feet clonk against a solid surface under a thin sheet of snow. For a blizzard, this section of the ground wasn't too thick in snow, and the ground underneath felt nothing like dirt.

He was nudged off the surface, pushed into the snow as his ears twitched to the rumbling from underneath him. Gears turned and grinded against one another as rough steel sheets slid against steel girders. He was picked up and sent to move once more, the wind suddenly stopping and the light from outside dimming immediately. Shoved up against the wall, they were stripped of their thick outerwear and shackled to the wall, wrists and ankles clapped in cold metal circlets. "Boss will see you soon, don't go nowhere now."

It felt like eternity since he had seen anything besides behind a piece of dark cloth. He could hear each member's individual breathing as some struggled against the metal shackles. Time went by until the rattling of locks sliding out of place and a thick door swinging open on squeaking old hinges graced his ears. A paw reached up and slid the fold from his eyes. The first thing he did was shut them as a light was abruptly lit; shrinking his pupils so quickly it nearly burned his eyes out of his skull.

A timber wolf narrowed his gaze to Cooper as he clutched the side of his muzzle and slowly moved the raccoon's face from left to right, inspecting his features. His brown eyes wandered around the vicinity of his new accommodations, finding it exactly how he pictured it. It was made almost entirely out of cold, grey metal with a slight bluish tint. Florescent lights on the ceiling, protected by a wire cage hummed and flickered, occasionally one of the illuminated tubes going out and causing one of the guardsmen to flick it until it was alight once more. Carmelita was to his immediate right, stuck to the wall as he was.

Penelope was on the left wall, next to the unconscious Murray, while Bentley was bound in his wheelchair. The husky grunted a long string of sentences to the guards assembled in Russian and they soon departed with the collective nods of their heads. "So, you the big cheese around here?" Cooper's question caused the dog to glance towards him. He raised a brow, unable to discern what the raccoon had said to him.

As he was about to open his mouth, the thumping of boot soles echoed down the hall, each step seeming to slow in pace as the sound neared. The thin lupine gave a swish of his tail and stepped back from Cooper as he stood in attention. A tall, broad shouldered individual stepped into the chamber. Possibly the largest husky Cooper had ever seen, he bent down low to step in through the doorway without hitting his head as he stopped in front of Sly. His face was only slightly weathered, yet his eyes told them that he had seen countless years. The left tip of his ear was missing, cleanly cut off by what had to be a knife or edged cutting device.

His right eye was of the shining crystal blue that most breed of Siberian had, yet his left was striking silver, the iris completely clouded over from blindness. A long, deep trail of scar tissue ran down from under his right cheek, along with another crossing his useless eye, all the way down to his lip. He turned to the wolf and leaned down as the lupine muttered a long string of unintelligible dialog to the husky's undamaged ear. He moved both his blue and silver gaze to the raccoon and inspected him closely.

"Sly Cooper," he spoke in near flawless English. "Let me be the first to properly welcome you to our little facility. Welcome to the motherland, friends." A troop of assorted animals entered the room, white snow clinging to their shoulders.

"Sir, we successfully towed the armored vehicle and have it in storage. We also have taken digital equipment from the tank."

"Thank you, gentlemen," he responded as he turned back to the animals pinned to the wall. "The famous Sly Cooper and the Cooper gang...I expected so much more. From the weathered look on your faces, I would guess that you have been out there in that blizzard for more than a good two weeks. Looking for this place I would assume, yes? Well, I could say without a doubt that you've found it."

The assorted troops all gave with chortling laughter, until they were silenced by a wave of the canine's paw. He then shifted his gaze quickly from Cooper to Carmelita. She moved her chocolate brown irises from the raccoon towards the dog and drew in a light breath. "And what is this? I do not recall this lavish beauty being a member of the Cooper gang." He moved towards the vixen and slid the back of his paw against her cheek, which she snapped at with terrifying fangs, yet the dog quickly drew his paw back before having it punctured.

"My God; and I say love at first sight is a myth. Tell me, miss. Will you grace my ears with the sweet symphony of your voice as you tell me your name?" Carmelita drew her brows down in a solid glare as her lips moved up in a defiant pout.

"Carmelita Montoya Fox, the woman who will be flattening you into the ground once I get out of here." The dog chuckled and slowly shook his head."

"Carmelita...the forming of each syllable is like drinking the finest Vodka as it glazes and sizzles against your throat with sweetness. Tell me, Cooper," the canine said, turning back to the raccoon. "This woman, by the look in those eyes and the way she carries herself, I would almost guess that she is law enforcement. But a band of thieves siding with an officer? Now I truly have seen everything." He clapped his paws together as he paced for a moment, before stopping and standing with his legs spread slightly, his boot soles digging into the floor as he ground them in.

"Strange, how I know so much about you, yet you know nothing of me, forgive my rudeness." Sly was only focusing half of what the canine was saying as he began fidgeting with his left sweater sleeve, right below his wrist. "I am Kirill Mincov, ex-KGB spy under the late great Nikita Khrushchev, former ruler of communist Russia and known to my peers as 'the father of modern day sniping'. But please, let us not be so formal, even I wasn't as formal when I met your President Kennedy all those years ago."

"Wait, Kennedy? You knew President John F. Kennedy?" Mincov smiled and gave a chuckle.

"I didn't say I knew him, only that I was invited with my superiors to meet him once. He seemed very generous though, very polite. A shame to hear of his untimely passing along with his brother's, I rather enjoyed my time there. But that is history, seems so long ago when you think about it."

"But...that would make you..."

"...Sixty-eight years old, Mr. Cooper, yet still as spry as ever. I have Coal to thank for that mostly, although the military has served me well in the past." Everyone glanced at each other, causing Kirill to turn back and grin as he came to a conclusion. "Ah, you only know him as Colonel, don't you? One of the numerous aliases he goes by, and probably his most famous.

"The reason for this I do not know, perhaps he was a Colonel in the military. The man's a specter, nothing of value is really known about him. Only that he's a tired old man like myself who's seen enough of this world to know what it really is."

"And what is this world to you?" Carmelita retorted. Mincov shrugged with a slight sigh.

"Just one large battlefield, Miss Fox. Everyone you come across is a potential enemy, which is why you try to make friends, to eliminate potential enemies. We all have differences, flaws that we try to see past in order to coincide peacefully. But there never really is peace, so long as there are two people on this Earth, someone will think about killing someone else. But, once Coal gets everything in order, and now that you are out of the way, it should be quite easy to create what he envisioned."

"Just what is Colonel...Coal planning by resurrecting Clockwerk? What are his intentions for this 'new world' that you speak so fondly of?" Sly continued to wiggle against his sleeve every so often whenever Kirill would turn his back.

"A world, Cooper...one without wars, without starvation, without the poor and less fortunate and homeless who scrape their living off the rocks and sidewalks. An end to suffering as a whole, achieving true, actual peace. With Clockwerk, we can achieve that goal, by bringing back one of the greatest technical marvels of his time period. Think of the minds it took to think up the designs, to bring together the materials and construct him, by infusing living tissue into machine in order to achieve everlasting life back during the time of the Egyptians when his transformation first began. He once thrived on hate, but now we will actually give him a purpose than simply seeking revenge against your family line."

"Kirill," Cooper said somberly. "What did my family do to Clockwerk that he would sacrifice his living body for a mechanical one just to insure that he eliminated my family line? It had to be more than that they were better thieves..." The husky sighed and shook his head.

"That I do not know, all I do know is that he will be intended not for killing you or your future family. Once we have used him, the plans will be locked away and his body permanently deactivated. What I do know is that he will be used to dive into the bottom of the ocean, to retrieve the vault that held the countless treasures your family hoarded." Sly immediately halted his fidgeting and gave all of his undivided attention to Kirill.

"What do you know about that? And how do you know so much of my family?"

"This is all of what Coal told me, he intended to use Clockwerk's metal body as a more sophisticated submersible to dive down to the bottom of the ocean and hoist the remains of the Cooper vault to the surface. We will gain access to the untold riches that lie inside and be able to rebuild the world with all of that money. But there are other things...secret things that only the ancestors who set them there know of. Artifacts lost through time that held untold properties...all I care for is the money and the abrupt halt of Armageddon."

Every word he said, Sly listened to with a keen sense of focus as each word was fired off like a gunshot. "What did my family hide in that vault, Kirill? What does Coal intend to use their secrets for?"

"That young man, I don't know as of yet. I'm also regretfully sorry to tell you this but I don't think you'll be alive for long enough to discover it either. Perhaps you can ask your forefathers in the afterlife. And I must thank you for bringing the cane of the Cooper clan to us. It will make breaking into the vault all the more simple for my superior."

"Kirill!" Sly thrashed against his shackles and lunged for the husky, only to halt abruptly, unable to advance any further than a few inches. Kirill simply turned and walked away from the room, the echoes of Sly's shouts beating against his ears.

* * *

The raccoon thrashed and cursed like a man possessed, his muscles stretching like the fibers of a t-shirt. He finally stopped after one of the troops currently in the room slammed the stock of his rifle into his stomach. His voice escaped him with a gurgled grunt as he croaked for air. He let his head sag low, burning a hole in the floor as he began fidgeting with his wrist again. The dog that hit him gave a chuckle as he lifted Cooper's head with a pawful of his grey hair.

"Kirill gave us orders to make sure you were alive till he came back to deliver your head personally to Mr. Black." Cooper blinked with apparent unconcern for his well being that put the dog off slightly, hoping for at least a look of slight fear or some pleading. He growled and leered at the suspended animal, bringing his face closer to Sly in an attempt to intimidate him. "That doesn't mean we won't have some fun with you beforehand. How would you like it if we had you kneecapped and watch as you crawl around on the floor, howling in pain?"

"I'd say...you'd have to try it and find out first."

"Is that a threat, because you are in no position, you rodent?" He let go of Sly's locks and stalked over to the small footlocker to the side of the chamber. Flicking open the locks, the dog wrapped his paws around a long wooden shaft that bore a very familiar gleaming gold curve on the end. "Hmm...Sturdy, polished oaken wood shaft...it would make a nice fire in the lounge room." He smirked to Cooper's reaction.

"Put it down...right now."

"And who's going to make me, eh, raccoon?" He waved the golden hook in front of Sly's snout for a moment before pulling it away. "Hmm," he hummed as he took a batter's stance and gave the cane a wide swing. "Nice and sturdy, but I need something to test it out on. Bet this would shatter kneecaps nice and quickly." He chuckled, twirling the cane around in his fingers as he walked up to Cooper, leering at him once more.

"You should have kept a more watchful eye on your belongings, Cooper."

"And you should listen to your own advice." With one last twist of his wrist, Sly's left shackle came free and he quickly clutched the handle of the forty-five sticking out of the dog's holster, planting the cold steel barrel to the canine's forehead. Thumbing back the hammer, the mechanical click sent a jolt of panic down the dog's spine as he slowly placed the cane onto the floor. "Unlock my shackles, feet first, slowly." He did as commanded.

The other troops present trained their rifles on the canine's backside, green trails of laser sights wiggling around through the air as dots of bright emerald danced on the dog's back. Sly pushed off from the wall and slowly turned the dog around so that he was facing his comrades. Keeping the gun pressed against the back of his head, Sly patted down the animal's body, un-strapping clips of ammunition and any concealable side arms. His cane was clutched in his right paw, the fabric of his gloves stretching taught against his fingers as his left continued to push the barrel into the skin of the dog's head. "Tell them to drop their weapons, right now!"

The dog laughed, until his chuckling was silenced by Sly grabbing one of his arms and twisting it behind the canine's back. "Idiot, do you really think they'll let you just walk out like this? I can jerk my head out of the way and you'll be breathing through a hole in your forehead." Sly twisted the dog's wrist a little more, causing him to wince.

"I'll take my chances; now tell them to drop their weapons." The dog sighed and gave a gruff string of words in Russian. The other animals slowly placed their weapons on the floor and kicked them away.

"You're making a big mistake, friend. A big mistake..."

"Yeah? That's fine with me, because I got everything I need to fix my mistakes. The question here is, do you have what it takes to fix yours? From what your employers know of me and my family line, they should have told you. Never come between a Cooper and their cane."

Sly then slammed the tip of his cane down upon the floor and in an explosion of thick grey smoke, the pressure around the dog's throat disappeared. He immediately shouted and ordered the other soldiers to open fire on the raccoon, failing to specify to aim in which direction. His string of shouts was silenced wit the eruption of gun fire as each soldier shot to their immediate front. As the smoke cleared and their pistols clicked dry, hallowed clips cascaded to the floor and all that greeted them was the bloody heap of meat and cloth that was the remains of their comrade. A sharp whistle to their left caused each individual head to swing in that direction towards a smirking master thief as he leaned against the wall.

"You missed me, comrades," he said in his best attempt at a Russian accent. "Remember each bullet fired was for your motherland." Their immediate response was clutching their belts for a replacement clip of ammunition, yet their paws only grabbed empty air. "Misplaced something?" Sly shook his head and chuckled as he spilled the contents of the red holster strapped to his thigh, piles of bullets spilling onto the floor and clattering.

"I had all the time in the world to empty each and every bullet from every clip you bozos had strapped on you. That's big mistake number two, never try and pull a fast one on a Cooper, because chances are, that Cooper is much faster." Pulling out the forty-five seemingly from thin air, he pointed for the three animals to turn around and lie on the floor with their paws placed upon their heads. Sly pressed his back to the wall, keeping an eye on the soldiers on the floor as he effortlessly unlocked one of Carmelita's arms.

"You alright?" The vixen glanced to the bullet filled wall to her immediate right.

"You idiot," snapping as she finally found her voice. "Do you know how lucky you are one of those bullets didn't hit any of us?!" Sly merely smiled as he reveled in the vixen's onslaught of shouts, his expression looking intoxicated and love sick to the fox's fiery attitude. "Are you even listening to me?!" He snapped out of his trance as the final shackle uncoiled from her wrist.

Rubbing her paws, Sly brought them into his as he kissed her knuckles, sliding the forty-five into her fingers. "You're a lot better with em' then me." He then got to work on the other's locks as Carmelita untied Bentley.

"Nice work, pal. But I gotta ask, Sly," Bentley said as he wheeled forward towards the door. "How exactly did you unlock the shackle around your wrist?"

"Oh that? Well you're not the only one in this group who uses his head." He chuckled and gave a flick of his wrist, Bentley catching the small tip of a lock picking hook poking out of Sly's left sleeve. "I just had to wiggle my wrist a little to get it to come out. After that, I just had to bend it slightly to reach the key hole."

"Sly, that's genius! I can hardly believe I didn't think of that sooner. How did you get it to stay strapped to your wrist like that is what I'm pondering?"

"Easy, I just tied a shoelace around it." Bentley's expression dimmed slightly as he arched an eyebrow.

"...a shoelace...?"

"Yep," he piped as he turned to the three guards on the floor. "What should we do with them?" Bentley answered his question as one of the retractable mechanical appendages jutted out of his chair. Squinting down the sights, he shot each guard in the base of the neck with sleeping darts. Each animal went limp as a gutted fish as the anesthesia knocked them out cold, leaving the gang to ponder their next order of business.

"Well, our first priority should be a no brainer. We're going to have to get back to the ATV and retrieve our equipment. Once that's over with," the turtle continued as he paced around, wheeling his chair slowly from left to right as he calculated a well devised plan in his head. "We'll use the ATV as a temporary hideout where we can begin the real operation. Sly, you probably already know this, but you'll have to take photos of key areas and objects that would be crucial to bringing this facility down and putting a permanent end to Clockwerk and his resurrection."

He scratched his head under the blue knit skullcap he wore, double and triple checking his plans of action. "If I can be able to hack into the surveillance system of this place, I could study patrol movements and we would be able to coordinate more effectively out in the field. Alright, first we get back the ATV and pray that my laptop is still stashed away in there. Next, Penelope and I will hack into the facility's mainframe and take control of the cameras, intercom, and even the light fixtures incase the situation calls for a little sneaking around in the dark.

"It will most likely be heavily guarded, so we should get all of our equipment together before taking the mainframe."

"Well, what are standing around here for then?" Carmelita slid the clip of ammunition from the pistol's handle and pulled back the bridge, a single casing ejecting from the firearm as she clutched it in her paw. Clicking back the hammer, she pulled the trigger and listened to the empty click of the gun as the hammer quickly shot forward. Pushing in the bullet, she slapped in the clip and loaded a round into the chamber. Carmelita then walked over to the pile of bullets Sly had dumped on the ground and started putting them back in their clips; the Spanish vixen gathering six magazines in all for a total of ninety-one rounds. "Let's get this done."

"Not without my hat," Cooper said as he slid out of the chamber door and slinked down the hallway. His booted feet made little noise against the metal grates that made up the hallway floor, metal pipes spider webbing under his soles as steam rose from sections of the pipe work. Hugging himself against the wall, he leaned out to peek around the turn of the hall and spied two guards conversing amongst themselves. A paw was placed on his shoulder, causing him to swing his head to the left.

"Risking your life over a stupid hat isn't going to help us get the ATV back." He shrugged off Carmelita's paw as he crouched and slunk further down the hall. Yanking down one guard with the hook of his cane, he brought a foot up to kick the gun from the second guard's paw. Swinging around, he flung the body wrapped around in his cane into the disarmed guard. They flung into each other and smacked against the wall with a resounding clang. "I still think this is a waste of time, you have other hats don't you?"

"But I need it now, I gotta get it back."

"What makes it so damn special from all your others?" Sly smirked and flicked his ears.

"It's lucky." She rolled her almond shaped eyes and crouched low, following behind him slowly as they crept down the hall. "Guys, meet us back at the garage where they're keeping the ATV. We won't be long." Bentley gave a thumbs up and wheeled down the opposite path Cooper took.

Murray and Penelope followed after him while the raccoon and vixen took an immediate left. "I hope you know what you're doing, ringtail."

"C'mon, when have I ever steered you wrong, beautiful?"

"Oh I could name a few right now if the situation wasn't so tense at the moment." They both became silent as a single trooper was stalking down the narrow corridor. Pressing themselves into the pipe work, Carmelita hissed as the hot pressure flowing through the metal veins stung at the flesh under her coat sleeve. She leveled the barrel of her gun to the guard's forehead, only for her sights to be thrown off by one of Cooper's paws.

"I would prefer to keep the killing at a minimal."

"Then how would you get past him without alerting the entire compound?" Sly answered her by creeping across the wall, blending in with the invisibility technique of Slytankhamen. Once the dog passed by, Cooper materialized behind the canine, hooking the head of his cane across his thick neck and quickly jerking him down. The back of his skull clunked against the metal grates of the floor and he was left unconscious.

"After you, my sweet," Sly bowed with a roll of his wrist. Fox gave with a silent blink of her eyes as she walked farther down the hall. "Now, if I were a hat, I would be..."

"Probably in an evidence locker or some sort, I would think." Carmelita grumbled, double-checking the luminous blue sight posts before realizing that they were calibrated for a range of fifty yards. The vixen growled slightly, adjusting it to a more manageable range of twenty-five yards. "For a bunch of trained soldiers they sure aren't smart enough to fix their sights after a visit to the range."

"Only you, Carmelita." Sly chuckled lightly as he rubbed his chin. "But you would think, why wasn't my cane locked away with it? It was almost as if Kirill wanted me to escape the chamber, like he knew we would."

"Do you think this could be a trap? Perhaps he wants us to think we have the upper hand on things until he pulls the ground from underneath us?" Cooper shook his head as he scratched the grey locks atop his head.

"I'm not sure, but from what I gathered from our brief audience with him, Kirill isn't stupid."

"I vote we get a grip on things, and then we can find your hat."

"But I need that hat, Carmelita. It's key to all of this."

"It's just a hat, Sly. What makes it so goddamned special that we would risk getting skinned alive at a moment's notice for it?"

"I already told you, it's lucky." Without further conversation, the pair crept through the narrow passage of steaming pipe systems and metal grates.

* * *

"Alright, three...two...one...go!" The gang quickly sprinted and took cover behind a tractor type vehicle inside the garage unit of the fortress. Three or so guards constantly scanned the area for abnormalities as others came and went, heading out into the tundra inside the heavy, bulky machines. Bentley flipped open the binoc-u-com that was built into his chair and he zoomed into their next destination. The ATV was in sight and luckily it still had its food and fuel trailers still attached. Naturally, being the Cooper gang's mode of transportation, it seemed to be the most heavily guarded object in the garage.

There were two constant troops posted by it while two more made rounds by it and along the rest of the perimeter. Bentley gave with a series of hand gestures as he threw out his grapple cam, the small sphere coming to life as it bounced on the floor. A retractable arm shot form from the sphere as the claw clamped onto the surface of the wall just above the ATV. "Hey, ugly," he shouted into the remote control for the cam. The two guard's ears perked as they swung around to see the small device mocking them.

"Come on; see if you can catch me!" The dog took aim for the cam, but it quickly zipped away to another section of the wall. The camera began clucking like a chicken as the two canines became warm with rage to the taunting and they followed suit after it. Murray and Penelope quickly ran up to the ATV and clambered onboard. The pink hippo grunted as he took both hands and twisted the hatch door open, disengaging the emergency locking devices.

As they climbed aboard, Murray fired up the engines as Penelope took a seat at what monitors were left. Activating the signal, the first thing that caught the mouse's eye was the blip on the local radar scanner of Sly's current position. The binoc-u-com gave out a constant signal that confirmed his location every step of the way, along with Murray, Bentley, and herself. Flooring the pedal, Murray stormed through the garage, ramming into any unfortunate security force as they clanged against the hull and disappeared underneath the steel behemoth. "Man, I love this thing!"

"Murray, we need to get back to Bentley and then set up the hideout for the operation to get underway. Swing this thing around and get a move on!" Murray did as instructed as he clicked a button and opened the back hatch for Bentley to wheel himself inside.

"Nice work you two. Now, we should contact Sly and get this job underway. Murray, get us to a more secluded section of the base. Penelope, you're in charge of the monitors until your field time."

"Scanners pick up that the west bay area seems pretty quiet."

"You heard her, Murray. Let's get everything into place. I just hope they didn't take my slide projector."

* * *

The dog gave a grunt as he clutched the back of his head, his eyes darkening until he slumped onto the floor, unconscious. "Wow, good job." Sly nodded in approval as Carmelita rubbed her knuckles tenderly. "Next time I think I'll pistol whip the guy."

"They really are thick skinned, but I guess they have to be to live out here. C'mon, we should be close." Sly flipped the cane into the air with a kick of his foot as he caught it and gave it a twirl. As the pair slinked down the hall, Sly moved his ears as he scanned the area for any noises. A buzzing from within the holster on his thigh caused him to divert his attention to the rumbling binoc-u-com.

Switching it on, he brought the device to his eyes as two screen displays lit up to life, one with his own face, while the other held the visage of Bentley. "Sly, can you read me? I'm getting a lot of interference. The walls are pretty thick from where I'm signaling you."

"I read you, Bentley. How are things going on your end?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing." He nodded and looked to his left at something off screen before returning his attention to the raccoon. "We've retrieved the ATV and are getting everything set up for the big job. All we're missing is one key object. You." Sly shook his head as he looked from the device to Carmelita behind him.

"I'm gonna be a little late for the show, sorry to say. I still have to find my hat, among other things."

"Among other things?"

"Yeah...but don't worry about me. Just...try and get what you can until Carmelita and I arrive." Bentley sighed and shook his head.

"Alright, alright, this wasn't part of the main plan but...I've learned to quickly adapt all these years of you changing the situation on the fly. Good luck with whatever you're looking for out there." The connection was cut off as Sly slid the device back into his holster.

"So, what is this other thing you're looking for out here, ringtail?" Sly glanced over his shoulder before giving a shrug.

"Oh, you know, wanna see if Kirill has anything worth while around here while I'm looking around, ya know?"

"Uh, huh, and I'm not really a cop. I just use that as a cover. In reality I put on a costume and fight crime at night."

"Carmelita, please..."

"Then stop lying. You're not good at it; I've learned to know your signs. Cooper, what is it you're looking for?" Sly dropped his ears and sighed, shutting his eyes hard.

"Information..." The vixen raised her brows to Sly's murmur.

"Information? Information to what?"

"Kirill knows about my family. He knows things that I don't even know about it. I have to find him and make him tell me what he knows. It's itching at the back of my mind like it's something I have to discover quickly. I don't know but, I think it has to be really important for it to be driving me crazy like this."

"What if he was bluffing, Sly? What if he's trying to lead you on? Like I said, this could all be some trap." He shrugged off her paw that was placed on his shoulder as he continued down the hall. She grabbed him by the shoulder once more and turned him around. "_Don't_ shrug off my paw again, Cooper...I hate it when you do that." Her tone bore some heat behind her statement as Sly sighed.

"What would you do if you were in my situation? What would you do if you knew so little about your past, and then someone finally knew about the secrets that have been nagging at the back of your mind for years? My parents weren't around when I was a child so they were never able to tell me everything from my lineage. Hell, I came across knowledge of the Cooper Vault by some miracle. It was amazing in there, Carmelita.

"It was probably the eighth wonder of the world, yet no one ever knew it even existed until that long year ago when we were on Kaine Island." Cooper held onto her frigid paws, coiling his fingers around them and warming her furry digits. "All the things I saw, all the things I wanted to touch that countless other Coopers have touched, it was all there. I was lucky enough to save what was left of it before most of it sank into the bottom of the ocean. But what's down there...there could be so much more, so many things I've never known about my family that I have to find out.

"And now that I have the knowledge that someone so very close by has key information of my family...I have to discover everything I can. I have to see, if he was bluffing or that he truly knew. And I need your help." Carmelita furrowed her brows and rested her forehead on his chest as she stared at the floor in frustration.

"I'm going to hate myself for all of this...but who else is going to stop you from getting yourself killed?" Sly grinned and rested his chin on her head as he patted her back and gave a soft rub.

"Thank you."

"Alright, alright," she snapped, trying to remain professional, although her heart was starting to quicken in pace as she was enjoying his touch. "Let's just get moving, ok, ringtail?" Sly bowed and motioned his arms for her to walk ahead of him.

"After you, darling."


	23. Next Time Then

**Chapter 23**

**Next Time Then**

* * *

_**C**__onstable Cooper kept his arms stiffly out in front of him as he held the cold metal nine millimeter pistol pointing down the length of the pale white hallway. Squinting down the sight system, he lined them up and fired, blasting a hole through the target a few inches away from his intended target. He bit his lip in frustration as he spent the majority of his day practicing that one shot, his closest achievement still just a hair's breath from where he wanted it to land. The thumping of boot soles caught his sharp ear's attention through the earmuffs that protected his drums from the loud explosions of his firearm as they moved to the noise, but he otherwise remained focused on the target dummy. The tingling familiar scent tickled at his nose as he moved his amber eyes to his left, seeing a pair of arms holding a pistol and firing off a few rounds from the other firing booth. _

_Sly's brows relaxed a bit as he stared at Carmelita for a moment, watching her trail of bullets as they punched holes through her target, each one hitting its mark with machine like precision. She pulled off her earmuffs, combing fingers through her hair as she blinked, her irises shifting to Cooper direction. Sly lightly smiled as he quickly looked away and feigned ignorance as he tried to line up the sights again. "Try holding the gun with one paw cupped under the handle." Her statement sounded muffled from his ear protection so he pulled them off and glanced over his shoulder. _

"_Is that how you shoot?" Carmelita walked up to the raccoon and lifted his arms up and placed her paws over his, directing his fingers with hers to show him how to hold the gun a bit more steady. _

"_The problem is that by holding the gun with a paw on the handle and another paw over that one is that you leave the bottom unsupported, making it more likely for your paws to move as you pull the trigger, throwing off your aim." Sly watched her dancing fingers over his and gave a smirk to an idea that came to him. He began slouching his shoulders a bit, causing the vixen to press herself against his back a little more to teach him the right standing position. "Keep your shoulders up and stiff. It helps keep your arms steady so they won't flail around as you fire." Sly grew warm to her proximity as he enjoyed the feeling of her paws moving around on his. _

"_Now, just aim down the sights," she said, her tone beginning to grow more quiet by the moment. "Take your time...keep everything steady and just focus on that one particular spot. Forget about the gun, just visualize your target. Feel the shot; be like you can see where the bullet travels." Sly kept his paws poised for action as he rubbed his index finger along the length of the trigger, feeling the non-slip grooves that kept the finger stable. _

_Holding his breath, he pulled back with all his might as he felt the pressure he applied before wasn't adequate enough to pull it fully back. The gun barked in his paws as they along with Carmelita's jolted back from the force. His eyes grew as he saw the section of the target crack and leaving an adequate sized hole in the center of the red spot that indicated a fatal shot. Letting the air pass from his lungs, he grinned in satisfaction as he realized what he was doing wrong and learned how to properly execute his shot. "Good shot. That's a kill right there." _

_Sly moved his head slightly, turning his eyes to the vixen's face that stared back from over his shoulder. The grin never left his lips as he looked at her almond shaped eyes. "Thanks, partner." He couldn't come up with anything other than that to say. There were a million things he wanted to say to her, but none of them were wise to mention at the time. _

_They both realized they've been standing there staring at one another with her paws still on his for a long moment as she snapped out of her trance and stopped rubbing her fingers on his knuckles. She blushed for only a moment as Sly placed the gun down and couldn't hide the smile on his face as he turned around to face her. She tried to remain as professional as she could, but it proved difficult to the sight of those notorious eyes of his. "Do...do you want me to show you again, or do you think you've got it this time without my help?" Sly's smile grew as he listened to her fluctuating tone from tender to more heated as she fought for control of her emotions. _

_Where she would hide them, Sly would embrace his emotions as he stepped up closer to her and placed a feather light paw on her shoulder, slowly sliding his palm up to the side of her neck and then farther up to cup the back of her head, his fingers moving in her ebony locks. She leaned into his paw as he moved to cup her left cheek and stroked his fingers against it. Their eyes went lazy as their lids loosely fell in anticipation as their noses drew closer. He moistened his lips as she held no control of herself beyond this point as her lips moved to form a comfortable spot for his to rest upon. Placing a paw on the back of his neck, she drew closer as he was lightly tugged by her paw to her. _

_He cupped her face and felt a burst of emotion as their lips touched. They were soft and warm and gentle like a new born baby's hand wrapping around one of your fingers. And like a baby wrapping their small fingers around yours, your heart fills with an unexplainable substance that causes it to flutter and become weightless, yet it beats and kicks as hard and loud as the pistol lying on the table. Her fingers danced against his neck, feeling the solid muscle underneath soft fur and skin as she moved it down to the beginning of his back and farther down still. His paws moved to behind her head as he combed his fingers through her hair and gently played with her ears. _

_Placing a paw on his chest, they separated lips as their eyes fluttered open. She kept her palm pressed to his chest as she felt the hard as marble muscle underneath his collared shirt. Licking her lips to the sweetness that still clung to them; she continued to stare at him wordlessly. "Sly," she whispered to him. _

"_Yes?" His tone was equally quiet and passionate to symbolize that this conversation was meant only for them. _

"_Sly," she repeated. _

"_Yes, Carmelita, what is it?" _

_

* * *

_

"Sly, are you listening to me?" The raccoon gave with a lazy _mm hmm _as he nodded his head. Carmelita pinched the tip of his ear to coax him out of his dream like state. He snapped back into reality as he quickly blinked his eyes in rapid succession and shook his head.

"Sorry, hon. I got a little confused. We're you saying something?" Carmelita furrowed her brows with a light smirk.

"Hon," she mused, placing a finger to her lip. "Since when do you start calling me that?" Sly scratched his head and frowned that it remained hatless.

"Oh, just thought I'd start now so you would get used to it early. Anyway, what were you saying?"

"I was trying to get your attention for the last five minutes. We've been walking for god knows how long without you saying a single word. What were you thinking about so hard?" She raised a brow suspiciously as Sly continued to look forward, his eyes looking slightly to the left as a smile crossed his lips.

"Remember back at headquarters when you used to help me at the firing range?" The vixen blinked as she wondered what caused him to bring this up as well as to try and remember the past memories of when they were partners.

"I do," she nodded. "I remember you would shout at the top of your lungs whenever you became frustrated."

"Well that was the only time in my life I ever really operated a gun, sweetie." The vixen walked past him, causing him to follow behind her. "Was I really that bad?" His tone of nervousness caused her to giggle as she gave him a sense of slight failure.

"Calm down, ringtail. I'm not going to call off our relationship just because you can't fire a gun. For a beginner, you weren't all too bad. The thing was you had no real training up until that point. You weren't ever sent to an academy since everyone at the station wanted to give you the illusion that you've been with the force for awhile since we _thought_ you lost your memory."

Sly chuckled as he combed a paw through his hair, resting it at the nape of his neck. "So even though the rookies were fairing better than you...you did good for how much experience you did have." Carmelita then shook her head, tousling the dark curls to sway in front of her eyes. "You did slouch a lot though."

"Well of course I did," his response caused her to blink and turn back to him. "How could I stand straight with you in the room? You have that effect on me, darling. And not only that," he whispered as he slinked closer to her, his face mere inches away as he lazily dropped his eyelids and gave a demure, pleasurable expression. "You my _pequeña diosa Latina dulce, hágame golpear e intoxicado con su amor de ensaring y belleza. ("You my sweet little Latin goddess, you who ensnare my heart with your love and intoxicating beauty.")_

He spoke in a heavy Spanish accent with a whispered tone that, despite being humorous by nature, managed to send a slight jolt down the vixen's spine. He felt a slight shiver in her figure as one of his paws was wrapped around the small of her back and another lightly lifting her chin up by his fingertips. He then added, "And...I may have slouched purposely to get you to brush against me on occasion." Her entranced stare diminished slightly as she was revealed the truth behind his passionate words that were whispered into her ear in her native tongue. She pushed him away and combed a paw through her hair.

"Despite all this, you still have the time to crack jokes. It makes me wonder how you've kept one step ahead of me all these years. Is it that I'm really bad at my job, or that you're just that good?" Sly laughed as he leaned against his cane.

"Of course, of course my sweet _Petit chéri_, (_"Little darling.") _ you are, how you say, thee greatest Inspector of all of _La France de Paris _(_"Paris, France_)_, _no?" That time he spoke in a French accent, bearing a striking resemblance of Pepe le Pew. The vixen shook her head after giving an over the shoulder glance and continued walking, her ears drawing up straight to a sound not too far away.

"Wait...listen." Sly cupped a paw to his ear and leaned a little closer to the length of the hall.

"..._Хорошая шляпа, друг. Цвет удовлетворяет Вам хорошо_?" ("..._A good hat, friend, it compliments you nicely. How did you come by it?_")

The heavy Russian dialect was hard to discern, her skills in that language lacking a bit. "My Russian's a bit rusty, but I think I heard something about a hat." Glancing back to Cooper, his eyes widened slightly to the mention of a hat. "A blue hat to be exact."

"_Взял это из тощего енота, которого мы захватили в пустошах. Дурак - вероятно мертвый теперь чтобы итак, почему бы не использовать это? Обнимает главу очень приятно и сделанный от толстой ткани." _("_Got it off some raccoon the scouting party brought in. The fool – probably dead now so I thought, why let it go to waste? Embraces the head quite nicely and made from some fine, thick fabric.")_

Carmelita put a paw to her mouth to try and conceal a grin. "This guy seems to really like your hat, Cooper. He says it fits nice and snug on his head and it's a good color." Cooper flipped his cane so that the hook was pointing forward as he crouched low and began slinking towards the voices.

"Hope he doesn't get too used to it." Sly's anger was starting to boil to the sight of a thick faced husky conversing with another that had his blue cap perched atop his head. Carmelita crept slowly behind him at a distance, her boots causing too much noise against the grate covered flooring while Sly's made nary a squeak. Watching from a close distance, she noticed Sly not going directly for the dog, instead moving slowly around to his left. She then noticed; there near the dog's left side was an alarm console, and two sturdy guards that would take some force to bring down.

Sly would joke at the most unnecessary of times, but he never failed to impress. Her sight was drawn to the raccoon at this most pressing of situations that she failed to realize something else was with them aside from the two canine guards. Hearing a soft creak, she opened her mouth, sucking in air, yet her lips were covered and she was yanked back into the darkness. Sly slammed his cane into the dog's flank as he charged up for a second swing, the hooked tip glowing a brilliant gold to the stored energy inside as he twirled around and caught the dog again, and the second one, bringing them to the floor. He somersaulted in the air, his feet landing on the dog's face and burying him into the ground as he glanced up to see the second dog staggering to his feet.

Before he trained his sights on the raccoon, Sly leapt into the air once more and kicked his feet out, catching the dog in his thick chest and then rolling back up from off the floor, sprang his gets out once more and caught the dog under his chin, launching him off the floor a few inches before he toppled back down into a heap of muscle and fur. Sighing to his handy work, he glanced around and smirked as he clutched the brim of his hat between two fingers and flipped it into the air, catching it on the top of his head. The familiar sensation and security of warmth filled the top of his head as the brim jutted out enough to cast a slight shade over his eyes. Tugging on the collar of his navy blue turtleneck, he readjusted his hat, reveling in the familiar feeling as he turned back to where Carmelita was standing.

His eyes widened as the vixen was not within his immediate sight and he surveyed his surroundings, walking back down the hall until he stopped, lowering himself to the ground and placing his palms flat on the floor. A mechanical click filled his right ear as it twitched instinctively, his eyes closing in annoyance to his stupidity. "Slowly now, if you please Mr. Cooper." Sly did as commanded as he slowly rose off the floor and glanced to see Kirill who thrust the gun against his temple. "Your cane please, we don't want any last minute heroics here."

Cooper would rather he shot him right then and there before giving him his family cane, but the sight of Carmelita in a head lock with a gun pressed to her head was quite a persuasive sight. He sighed in defeat and placed the wooden shaft into Mincov's open palm. He glanced to the cane with his blue and silver irises and gave a low growl in approval. "A very beautiful piece, expertly crafted and," he then balanced the cane on one finger, finding that the hooked end and the wooden pole measured exactly in weight. "Perfectly balanced.

"A nice addition to Coal's collection of heirlooms of previous foes vanquished. You've done us a great service, my American friend. With this, it will make opening that vault of yours all the easier." He then glanced to the dog that held Carmelita and smirked. "Oh if only the sultry beauty could open her eyes and see what a true man is, then perhaps she might live through this.

"What she sees in you is beyond me, you who got her into this predicament we now see ourselves in." Cooper narrowed his eyes but remained passive, his eyes looking back to the barrel that was leveled with his head. He gave a mental sigh as Kirill pulled the gun away and pointed it upwards. "But how unsportsmanlike it is of me to simply point a gun at you and pull a trigger. There is no honor in such a display or sport at all. We should make your last moments more entertaining, yes?"

He motioned for the other dog to follow along with Carmelita in tow as he nudged Cooper into the assembly area. "Do not falter, Mr. Cooper, your lady friend's life depends on it." Sly glanced back to Carmelita until he was shoved farther down the path, his eyes catching the shining metallic body of an almost complete Clockwerk. The sight caused many a childhood horrors to rear their ugly heads as Sly grew cold. He was nudged again to a barren spot in the work bay.

He glanced up at the scaffolding as more guards and mechanics halted their previous projects, seeming to know fully well what Kirill was planning as they watched with great anticipation. Carmelita stood along with the dog that held her at gun point. "Понизьте нас," ("Lower us") Kirill shouted as he threw an arm up and placed the cane down by a lined off section of the floor. The floor underneath his feet buckled as a large section of the surface began to lower down, the cane steadily growing out of reach from the raccoon. Both Sly and the dog were lowered into a makeshift arena that was originally used as a section for engineers to maneuver underneath large machines.

Guards and engineers began shouting and cheering in rasping guttural voices as Kirill gave with a wave of his paws and began unzipping his jacket. Cooper glanced up to the vixen who stared back down at him. Feeling like a slave pushed into a gladiatorial battle for a tyrant's amusement, he planted his feet on the floor and stood tall and proud. His morale was quickly shattered though as he witnessed the form of Kirill that he hid under his padded jacket. He was clad only in a sleeveless undershirt that hugged his solid chest and thick waist, while his round, bulging shoulders weaved into knotted arms that looked as if they could uproot fully grown trees.

Rolling his head around on his thick muscled neck, he rolled his shoulders forward and held up his arms, a smile on his face. "This should be fun, yeah? It is time I witness the famous Cooper finesse in action. Show me these amazing skills of agility that the raccoon family line is so infamous for." Sly did his best to look somewhat imposing to the brute as he took a stance and slowly circled around, Kirill doing the same. The raccoon then charged, launching himself into the air as he shot both legs out, only for the dog to clutch his feet and fling the smaller animal across the arena.

Cooper flipped over and landed weightlessly on his feet and spun back around, dodging a punch from Kirill and following up with an uppercut to the jaw, then a left hook across his face. The dog's head snapped back, but he gave a gritted smile as he slowly moved his head back and threw a quick jab to Cooper's face, causing the raccoon to falter back before a wave of dizziness attacked him and he fell onto his tail. Kirill threw a punch into his open palm and motioned for Cooper to get up. Shaking his head, Sly got back up and quickly sprinted towards his foe, veering sharply to the right as he dodged a punch, he slammed a knee into the dog's flank and then threw a punch up into Kirill's hard as brick stomach, yet the dog shook it off and threw one of his wrecking ball fists across Sly's face, then another with his right fist, and then spinning around on the tip of his foot to swing his left arm into Sly's face again. Sly's vision blurred as he blinked in and out of consciousness, holding his arms up as his reflexes caused him to prevent another freight train from crashing into his nose.

Using his thief reflex technique, he slowed time as he effortlessly dodged another fist and went to kick out the back of the husky's legs, causing him to slouch to his knees while his large arms propped him up from the floor. Sly then ran towards the wall, placing a foot on the surface and sprinting up the side of the wall before pushing off at the top, flipping back and slamming his elbow to the back of the dog's neck. The floored Kirill as Sly regained his footing and heard no more shouts or cheers from the witnesses. His face pounded like a drum as he panted slightly, sucking in a breath as he saw Kirill pick himself off the floor. "A good hit, you managed to ground me for a moment, I commend your ingenuity, Mr. Sly."

The sixty-eight year old dog rubbed the back of his neck and winced slightly. "Ah, I actually felt that one. Well, please don't stop, I need more of this." He chuckled eagerly as he rolled his head around on his neck and sighed confidently. Cooper's brows twitched to the odds stacked against him.

He would have figured the dog's parents were part grizzly bear and part rhino from the way his body was built. Every blow was like striking a vault door as he wound up again and slammed a fist into the Siberian's stomach, following up by lifting up off one paw and shooting a booted foot up under his chin. Nothing, a slight grunt or a coughing laughter of enthusiasm was all the raccoon was graced with, while the dog delivered kicks and punches of remarkable speed despite his bulk. Sly's paws ached, shaking his head to their uselessness in his situation as he decided to keep with his footwork. Flipping through the air, he vaulted over the dog and swung a leg to catch him in the flank, then following up by jumping into the air and twisting around, planting his heels time and time again into Kirill's face.

The dog flinched as he took a step back, then looking up he clutched Cooper's flying kick and gripped his ankle hard as he spun around and flung him into the wall. "You're doing very well," he said with an eager hopping tone in his voice as he took a more wrestler like stance to his fighting style. Cooper picked himself back up, wobbling slightly to the pounding in his head as he shook away the grogginess. Jumping towards the wall, he planted his feet and pushed off against it, flipping through the air and kicking his feet out. Kirill anticipated the move as he blocked by crisscrossing his bulging arms and clutched Cooper's shoulders, slamming his head into the raccoon's face as he swung him around and slammed him back onto the floor.

Cooper grunted and coughed, a small speckle of blood dotting the floor as he wiped his mouth with the back of his paw. He glanced back up from the shadow that cast over his body as he saw Kirill's smiling face staring down at him. He gestured for him to stand and continue. Sly pushed off from his palms and landed back onto his feet, causing a joyous gasp to escape from Mincov's maw, only for a short instance as a foot was planted into his face. Using his head as a stepping stone, Sly pushed off from Kirill and fell back onto Kirill's head, standing tall and weightless.

The dog was confused at first until he noticed the pressure on the top of his head and widened his eyes to see Cooper standing atop his head like an owl on a branch. He swung at the raccoon on his head, only for Cooper to leap up from it and land back on his head. He then crouched down, pressing his thighs against the sides of the dog's head as he pulled with all his leg strength, yanking the dog's head back and using his own body weight to slam him down to the ground. Sly was well out of the way as Kirill send a small shockwave through the floor as he fell atop of it, Cooper giving with a smirk as he balanced on the tips of his feet and bounced slightly. Kirill charged, throwing wide sweeps of his arms, only for Sly to dodge, stepping from left to right swiftly as he leaned back far from an uppercut thrown at his jaw.

As he leaned back, he placed his paws onto the floor and flipped back, catching the tips of his feet under Kirill's chin and then pushing forward, his feet pushing into Kirill's chest and flooring him again. With both feet planted onto the dog's face, he leapt up, then slammed his heels into Mincov, doing a stair climbing motion with his feet and then ending by placing one foot flat on his face and spinning, grinding his boot sole into his mug. He sighed from exhaustion as he withdrew from the limp form on the floor and wiped his brow from perspiration, hot breath escaping in bursts from his open mouth. He sighed seeing Kirill remain motionless as he turned back to the stunned audience and gestured towards the lift controls. The crowd began kicking up again, causing Sly to look back over his shoulder as he felt a tap, seeing Kirill on his feet and standing right behind him.

He smiled with a reddish tint in his fang filled smile as he threw a wreaking ball of a fist into Cooper's nose, sending him reeling back. Picking Cooper off the floor by the neck, he slammed him back into the ground as he jumped slightly into the air, and then landed atop of the raccoon. Over two hundred pounds of muscle and bone crushed the air from his lungs as he tried to shout in pain, yet his throat only threw out a gurgled rasp. Kirill rolled off him and clutched his nose, feeling a slight sting of pain as blood dribbled from his nostril. "You managed to break my nose, I'm impressed Mr. Cooper. I don't think anyone's been able to stay alive as long as you have with me in the ring."

"What," he coughed. "Am I just...amusing you?"

"Oh heavens no, I hold you in the highest regards. I expected nothing less from you and you've been delivering quite nicely. I am ecstatic to think what you would be capable of with your cane." Cooper coughed again, every breath setting off a bomb in his chest as he peeled himself off the floor he became buried into. His limbs died, his labored breathing not supplying enough oxygen for his arms to move as his wobbling legs kept him off the floor. Kirill ground his teeth to the sting in his nose as he touched it slightly and spat out a glob of reddish bile.

Atop the floor, Carmelita watched with a leaping heart as she fought to control it from jumping out of her mouth. She had been thinking intently on the matter at hand. Sly was losing, badly, and if it continued he would be dead from the trauma or the sheer exhaustion from trying to stay standing. The Siberian's strength wasn't natural, the way he shook off having the bones in his face shattered was unbelievable. She had to act quickly; Sly's life depended on it.

She noticed the guard's grip on her had loosened somewhat as his mind was distracted to the fight, but that simply wasn't good enough for her. She had to gain the upper hand on the situation, all of it. And with the presence of all these armed guards around, she would have to think hard and move fast. She glanced to the gun in the guard's paw, seeing the barrel was no longer leveled with her head and was in fact pointing away from her slightly. Glancing to his stupefied look of awe in the spectacle in front of him, she knew his reaction time would be next to nothing compared to her quick movement.

It was simply the matter of her being outgunned and he not looking of high enough rank for a very effective hostage. Then there was the likely chance that if she did use him as a hostage and then as a meat shield if things got ugly, the guards could be armed with high caliber weapons that could reduce the thick dog's body to a piece of paper trying to stop the bullets. Then she saw it, as if god placed it there right for her to see it exactly when she wanted it. The scaffolding, where all the guards were standing together side by side was suspended by a badly rusted link of chain. She looked to the weight at which the guards were positioned, perfect for the scaffold to burst and topple, causing a domino effect on the shouting canines, giving her a window of opportunity to use her newly acquired firearm to free Sly.

She had to move quickly, enough for the lift to move up enough for her to jump over and get Sly away from Kirill. She counted to three, and then quickly ripped one of her paws from the dog's paw that covered both her wrists, pushing the gun away and knocking the back of her head into his face. He faltered back, leaving the vixen to pluck the gun from his paw and slam the handle of the gun into his head, his vision blackening. She spun around, just as the first guards turned around to the sound from behind them and fired. The gun burst in a flash of sparks as the jingling chain cracked and caused the second chain to snap from the unsupported side and the front of the scaffolding collapsed, making a steep ramp for the unsuspecting troops to roll down, slamming into each other and becoming a tangled mess of bodies.

Sprinting, she leapt far, landing down to ground level as she hopped over the mess of bodies, her boot smacking into one guard's face as she sailed over them and began lifting the section of the floor where Kirill and Sly sparred, scooping up Sly's cane in the process. Cooper glanced up to the commotion along with Kirill, his eyes widening to the sight of his savior as he fell to one knee and gasped from exhaustion. Kirill remained stoic, aside from an annoyed twitch of his brow that his match was interrupted. He reached for his own pistol but froze as a bullet smacked right beside his booted foot. He drew the gun from his holster and placed it on the floor as Carmelita leapt down to the floor and helped Cooper regain his footing, keeping the gun trained on the dog.

Mincov narrowed his gaze to the woman as she and Sly retreated away as the angered shouts of more troops filled their ears. Kirill watched the pair depart, clenching one of his fists as he pulled his jacket back onto his form. "I will have my match, Cooper. No upstart vixen will have any say in the matter."

* * *

Bentley stood outside of the ATV in the cold vehicle storage room as he held a remote device in his hands. The small sphere of his grapple cam quickly zoomed towards him as its retractable claw moved from surface to surface until it landed right next to his wheelchair. Picking it off the floor, he pulled out the small disk from a slot in its side and returned to the tank. He opened the disk drive in his laptop and placed the disk inside, uploading the files of photos that the grapple cam had taken. "Alright," he said while clearing his throat.

"Since Sly and Carmelita had not arrived yet, I took the liberty of taking recon photos with my grapple cam. It seems Kirill is the one in charge of the operation of seeing Clockwerk rebuilt, acting as overseer of the entire complex. While Clockwerk isn't complete, we still run the risk of him being activated and having to deal with him if we don't finish this quickly. For starters, Penelope and I will hack into the factory's network and take control of whatever we can get our hands on, light fixtures, intercoms, automatic doors, the works. It will come in handy as distractions and giving us more of an advantage while we're out in the field.

"This will be a full time job as we man it. Murray, you and Sly will radio in whenever in need of a distraction in your location. After this, you'll get to work on slowing down the construction of Clockwerk. The main engineers that are leading the project will need to be taken out. We chose you because you've got the muscle to stand up to them and any cronies they will most likely send after you."

He typed on his laptop for a moment until a series of photos enlarged on the screen. "There are three engineers manning the operation. Stuka Carson, from what I hear he's in high standings with Colonel's...Coal's empire." A silvery furred rat sporting a bright red beret clutched a leather strap that was connected to a bludgeoning club while his left eye was partly closed from what seemed like the diminishing tint of a slowly healing black eye. The photos shifted.

"There's also Abel Stone, lead engineer in hydraulics. He frequents the south hallways constructing Clockwerk's wings in another work area." The glaring face shot of the wolf shown with the glow of a torch's flame as he was pictured in the middle of welding the armored blade like feathers of one of Clockwerk's wings. "And lastly we have Corbin Derringer, technician and head of data management." The ferret had a slight sneer in the crease of his lips as he typed on a terminal and barked obscenities to his coworkers.

Bentley clapped his hands together and rubbed his palms as he turned back and got his equipment together, storing it in the bag attached to the back of his wheelchair. Penelope slung a backpack over her shoulder and readjusted her glasses. "Murray, wait for our signal for your phase of the plan. Once that's complete, we'll have to wait for Sly and Carmelita to have a more stable signal for us to contact them."

"Got it," he saluted and watched them depart from the armored vehicle. He glanced down at his rumbling stomach and gave it a pat. "Might as well break into some rations while I wait."

* * *

Carmelita panted hard as she pressed her back against the wall, her ears straining to hear the hard footfalls of the guard's men hunting them down. She sighed as she heard the noise traveling away from them and she slid down the wall and landed on her rump, Sly lying limply in her arms. "I think we lost them," she said between pants. Her breath was hot, but the lingering wisp of condensation escaped from her mouth from the cold interior of the hallway. She glanced back down at Sly who was staring hard into Carmelita's mid section as his head rested on her lap.

Resting a paw on his head, she withdrew as he hissed in pain to her touch, causing her to lower her paw more gently on his brow. "Anything broken?" His ears flickered and he responded with a slight shake of his head. "Thank god I acted as soon as I did. That man wasn't natural, he's not real. No one could shake off such a beating as he had, no matter how much muscle her had shielding him. That blow to his neck should have struck his cervical and killed him."

"I need to find him again..." Sly groaned. The vixen holding him gaped at his statement.

"Like hell you do, we're lucky we got out of there with our lives."

"I need to know...what he knows about my family." Carmelita shook her head, swaying her dark curls.

"It could have all been a trick, Sly, something to lure you to him just as he wanted back there just now. We need to get back to the ATV, finish this job of yours and get the hell out of here. Your history lesson can wait."

"No!" He snapped as he tried to stand up, shrugging her paws off him as he leaned against the wall. "I have to find him!" A wave of dizziness attacked him as he faltered, Carmelita coming to help support him, offering his cane as a makeshift crutch as he leaned heavily against it.

"Not in the condition you're in." Carmelita shook her head to his tenacity and glanced over her shoulder to a soft noise in the distance. Guards continued to sweep the area and she began to grow edgy. Placing a paw gently on his shoulder, she gave a jerk of her head down the south path of the hall. "C'mon, you'll get another chance. Right now we've got a job to be doing." Cooper glanced at her and grudgingly nodded with a frown.

"Fine, next time then." A deep buzzing in his holster diverted his attention to his thigh as he reached for the binoc-u-com snuggled comfortably in its case. Bringing the device to his eyes, the small display screens became alight with activity as Bentley's face appeared on screen opposite of his.

"Sly, we've-

He paused as he noticed the battered look of Sly's face. The raccoon suffered from a cut across his lip and a slice to his left brow. The beginnings of a black eye were starting to form, yet the dark mask of fur that covered his eyes hid the markings well as a deep wet bruise where his face took residence throbbed along with dark purples splotches on his chest and arms. "Sly...what happened to your face?" Cooper furrowed his brows as he touched the cut lightly on his lip.

"Carmelita and I had a bit of an exhibition with Kirill."

"You're alright, though?"

"I'm lucky to be alive, Bentley. The man was amazing, able to move so quickly and deliver such crippling blows for how large he was. It was unreal."

"Well, the important thing is that you're still here. Listen,"

"Yes, I know, we're late. Sorry about that." Sly scratched his head and nervously chuckled. Bentley shook his head and adjusted his glasses.

"Don't worry too much on it. As I've said before, I've learned to improvise while working with you. I've used my grapple cam for recon and managed to get a solid plan going for phase one of our operations. Penelope and I are currently in the process of our part while Murray preps himself for his bit. After that, it's up to you and Carmelita to finish off phase one." Sly nodded, clutching the brim of his hat and giving it a slight tug.

"Rodger that, pal. Awaiting your orders." He took the approach more serious. Wanting to redeem himself for his few blunders even before the mission officially began; he wished to give nothing less than one hundred percent.

"Once everyone else is in position, I'll contact you for instruction. Stand by and make sure you stay in an area with little interference for our broadcast signal. I suggest one of the secondary entrances or the vehicle storage area."

"Got it, the back doors or the garages."

"No Sly, that's secondary entrances and vehicle...never mind." The conversation was cut from there as Sly replaced the binoc-u-com into his holster and took one of Carmelita's paws into his.

"Let's roll, hon." Leading her down the hallway, a more enthusiastic spring appeared in his step as they bolted down the passage areas. The lingering thought of Kirill continued to itch at the back of his mind as they attempted to remain within range of the radio signals for Bentley to maintain a solid line of communication between them. He wanted to know desperately what the dog knew, but he knew that he would have to plan things more after experiencing the raw power Mincov was able of unleashing. Everything has a time and a place, whether it be the joyous day of proposing to a marriage, or the bleak dark night of completing a murder, everything had a time and a place.

He had to be optimistic however, he was at least in the right place if not the right time, not yet.

* * *

"Operation Hostile Takeover now commencing." Bentley beamed at his own prowess of naming his operations as he spoke it out loud to himself, Penelope standing there with her left fist on her hip as she quirked a brow. "Ahem," the turtle cleared his throat as he straightened his collar. "We'll need to travel through the south hall, across the maintenance area, and then it should be a straight line right for the mina power grid." He did a series of hand gestures to signify the directions at which they would be turning as Penelope glanced over the map display.

"Alright," she nodded her head, grinning. "Lead the way, partner." Turning around, the pair moved down the hall and made a sharp left, heading south down the hall and occasionally glancing at the directional signs spelt out in Russian. The humming electrical power of the main grid began rumbling in their ears as they were drawing closer. Their pace halted however as the appearance of hall security caused them to take cover behind a wall that ran into a second hallway.

Tossing out his grapple cam, Bentley took control of the small metal ball and perched the device directly atop the two guard's heads. "Hey fatty," he taunted through the microphone. The device broadcasted his statement and it was registered by the two dogs as they glanced up and sneered to the origin of the insult. The camera quickly zoomed away and one guard gave chase, trying to aim his rifle towards the small ball.

"Stupid talking ball, I smash you to pieces." The other dog watched with mild amusement as he faced forward again. "Run, run!" He turned back to his comrade to see the husky retreating from the grapple cam as it rapidly fired projectiles towards the two. As they departed, Bentley hit the self destruct function for the camera and stashed his remote as the pair quickly dashed for the maintenance area.

"Good work there," the mouse said as she fixed her glasses farther up her nose. Bentley smiled form the compliment as he glanced at the digital map display.

"Thanks, I tend to operate my best when under stress." Looking over their set path, he continuously glanced down at the screen as they walked. "Strange, I would think something as important as the power grid would be more..." as he glanced up, he noticed a spider web network of laser grids skittering across the floors and red trails constantly shifting paths. "Secure..." Scratching his head under his bicycle helmet, he sighed for a conclusion had not instantly popped into his mind.

"Oy vay," escaped his mouth as he glanced to his partner. "You wouldn't happen to have a solution to this, would you?" The mouse placed a finger to her chin as she furrowed her brows in thought.

"Hmm, since the floor grids are too intricate and close together, that rules out us timing the laser trails in open space and making it slowly across." She then noticed a power box on the other side of the sea of red lights. "That box there looks like it powers the laser grid, problem is, how do we get over there?" Bentley adjusted his glasses and squinted at the box.

"The casing's too hard for my arrows to do anything to it."

"What about my RC helicopter?" Bentley questioned the action a moment as he got an idea. Pulling out one of his grenades, he left the explosive inactive as he chucked the ball into the laser covered room. Before the bomb touched the glowing red floor, one of the moving laser trails quickly whipped towards the grenade and slashed the ball in half, the remaining halves sizzling into nothing in a matter of seconds.

"Motion activated too. Nothing will get past this; it's the perfect security precaution."

"If only we had something like a big mirror or something, we would be able to cross, or at least redirect some of the lasers for more room to think." It was then that Bentley got another idea.

"Penelope, lend me your glasses for a moment, would you?" The mouse glanced down at the green reptile and quirked a brow.

"But I can't see a thing without my glasses, and I don't think our prescription is the same." The turtle took the circular glasses and slowly placed the lens close to the floor of the laser grid. Instantly, one of the moving lasers quickly shot at the lens, but was reflected by the glass surface. The laser trail bounced off and began burning a hole in the wall across from Bentley. Adjusting the position of the lens, he felt the glasses growing hot and grew edgy as he would run out of time before the extreme heat would eventually melt the glass.

He directed the laser trail to the power box and watched as the metal casing grew red hot for a second before the plates melted and the wires were cut like butter. The red glow died with a sputtering flash as the box crackled and flared. Blowing on the glasses, Bentley rubbed the lenses with one of his cleaning cloths and handed it back to Penelope. "Where would I be without you, Penelope?" The mouse placed her glasses over her eyes and blinked for a moment.

"Well...if memory serves, you'd still be in Holland trying to stop the 'Black Baron' from ruining your plane hanger." Bentley chuckled to the fond memory of when he first officially met Penelope and watched with great enthusiasm to her RC helicopter prowess.

"Well, again thank you. Now, let's get moving to the grid, I can't stop now that things have been rolling along so smoothly." The two ran across the open floor that was free of deadly lasers as they flew open the door, courtesy of one of Bentley's bombs blowing off the locked handle. Many monitors and large generators graced their eyes as the glow of the many screens reflected off their glasses. Getting things in motion, Bentley connected his laptop to the main grid directly from the primary monitor and began typing away.

Penelope began doing the same, using her own equipment she was able to quickly hack in and decode any passwords or firewalls that attempted to halt her pace. "This security system is incredible," she balked in awe. "Of all the people we had to go and get involved with, Bentley, it had to be the guy with all the best stuff."

"Coal certainly has proved formidable. Despite him being somewhat of our arch nemesis since the absence of Clockwerk all these years, you have to admire the gentleman for his intellect. If only he wasn't a corrupt kingpin of one of the largest criminal organizations in the world hell bent on total domination, I would love to match wits with him."

"You've never managed to beat my wits, what makes you so confident?" Bentley smiled as he quirked a brow and creased his lips in a smirk.

"Simple my beautiful partner in crime," he paused to tap in the enter key, initiating total take over of the grid to commence, and then he finished his statement. "He's not a woman."

"Ah, a woman, that which vexes all men."

"Precisely."


	24. Nonexistent Smile

**Chapter 24**

**Nonexistent Smile **

* * *

**T**he past few weeks were probably the most unsettling days of Dorian's life. He remained attached to the sofa, his mind trying to push all the other thoughts away as he kept his attention on the screen for most of his time. Occasionally he would glance down at the staircase that led to his basement. His eyes wouldn't stay focused on the wood steps for long however as it only served to quicken his pulse rate as he began to seethe. Rubbing his left temple, he hissed out a warm sigh from his nose.

The television was his sanctuary from all this madness, but nothing was worth watching and he found his personal defenses failing as he sat up in frustration and crept to the kitchen. Pulling open his refrigerator, he wasn't all too surprised to find it more barren than he had last left it. Blinking hard and slow, he found nothing to peak his interest as he closed the cold door in disappointment. He glanced out the windows of his home, finding not a soul except his own occupying the walls for the moment. It was a rare time when he would have a little peace to himself.

He found nowhere else to go except straight back to the sofa as he fell onto it like a fallen tree, staring up at the ceiling as his legs were propped up onto the arm rest. His mind wandered to all the events that led up to this moment in time. He was housing fugitives in his own home, offering them sanctuary and aid while he himself was a Constable of Interpol French division. He has had his privacy invaded; his authority disrespected, and even had a pair of crazed sex obsessed killers humping in his own bed and destroyed his basement. Not only that, but an overly pompous wise cracking Englishman and his stealth suit wearing partner in crime who bled all over his furniture all crammed into this nut house he used to see as his home.

His eyes fluttered shut as he became engrossed in thought, resting a paw over his face. Where was Carmelita, he pondered. What would she do in this sort of situation? "Idiot, she wouldn't be in this situation because she wouldn't be housing international hitmen, instead doing the only rational thing anyone else would do by cuffing them right on the spot and send them to justice." His ears twitched slightly to someone stirring near, but he didn't bother to open his eyes.

His nose tingled to an enthralling scent and he was positive that Scarlet had just walked by the living room. "Dorian," she spoke in a soft, confused voice. "What are you doing?" The ocelot kept his eyes closed.

"Resting, I can't lay in my own bed right now thanks to you and Blue's friendly activities." She folded her arms, yet he didn't care to look at her as he heard her step closer to his form lying on the couch.

"It's been a few weeks now, you act like such a child at times I swear." Dorian stirred, but remained stationary.

"You wanna go away? I was just beginning to enjoy the peace and quiet around here until you showed up." She huffed but gave no reply as she sauntered off. The feline couldn't help but crack open an eye and peak through the gaps of his fingers to stare at her swaying hips as she departed, blinking in surprise to her skin tight shorts that showed off far too much leg to be practical, his eyes dancing to the hypnotic swaying of her round rump. He sighed again and covered his face, shaking his head. "Why can't I ever be around normal people?"

* * *

Scarlet stalked up the stairs and tiptoed down the carpeted hallway gleefully despite her previous conversation with Dorian. Sniffing the air about her, she swished her tail behind her as she felt liberated to the feeling of her scandalous leg wear. Seeing light from the slight opening of the study room, she smiled and quietly slinked in. Opening the door slowly, she slithered behind Indigo who sat by the small desk in the study, looking through what looked like small snippets of photographs and constantly glancing at a small mirror to his left. As she was directly behind him, she quickly covered his eyes with soft paws and snuggled her nose into his neck.

"Guess who, darling," she cooed as she began planting kisses against the side of his head, moving around to face him as she took a seat on his lap, placing a leg on each side of him as she leaned forward and planted an especially delicious kiss on the canine's lips.

"Well, this certainly helps put me at ease on its effectiveness," Blue spoke with an English accent clear in his voice against Scarlet's lips. Scarlet quickly drew back and slid her paws from his face and removed herself from his lap, seeing Blue looking at her with wide eager eyes. "And here I thought you would be able to find me out with just a second glance. I must say, I'm very proud of myself." He chuckled as he stood up and began roaming his fingers around his neckline.

Scarlet watched with great confusion as she watched Blue pull what appeared to be his skin back from under the confines of his shirt until his entire face peeled off, revealing a sandy furred jackal underneath the false Indigo's head. "Well," he said as he grinned at the malamute mask he held within his paw. "Something good certainly came out of it this, if it wasn't what I intended. Thanks for the friendly kisses, Ms. Crimson, they were very enjoyable." The vixen blinked in shock as Tom continued to look fondly at his finished creation.

"I would be quite the hit at parties, wouldn't I?" Scarlet touched her lips as her tail fluffed up in annoyance and embarrassment. Bringing her brows down, she clutched the jackal's collar and slammed him up against the wall, causing a deep grunt to emit from the candid. "You tell anyone about this, especially Indigo..."

"Relax, sweet, it won't leave the room." She let go of his collar with a shove and ran her fingers through her hair, pushing a stray tendril of hair back over her ear.

"This never happened," she spoke while jabbing a finger at him.

"Message has been received," he said with a light hearted smirk. Before she left the room, her eye caught the hint of a bandage that clung to her chest, right above her left breast. Her mind returned back to Dorian and their last spar, fixating her thoughts on the feline.

"Tom..." she murmured. The gold furred animal perked his ears and turned as he placed the Indigo mask on a bust.

"Yes?"

"You have been in Paris spying on all of us for months now...you wouldn't happen to have a copy of Dorian's police file, would you?" Tom placed down his other tools and walked up to stand behind the vixen, placing a soft paw on her shoulder. Leaning forward, his head was to her immediate right as he gave a suspicious tone, a smile clear on his face, yet the vixen could not see.

"Now why would you want that, hmm?" She brought her bottom lip into her mouth and began to slightly nibble it with her front teeth.

"Just curious. You won't tell me anything about yourself, so I might as well know as much as I can about whom I can. So...do you have it?" She never heard him move nor noticed the weight of his paw leave her shoulder as a manila folder was placed in front of her face. As she reached for it, it was withdrawn slightly from her grasp.

"You'll give it back to me when you're finished with it, correct?" The vixen nodded and the folder was slid into her grasp. Retreating from the room, she scampered down the hall much like an excited child as she opened the guest room she and Indigo were given and tossed the folder onto the mattress, jumping onto the bed as she lay on her stomach, opening the group of papers and began reading.

"Dorian M. Booker, blood type O negative. Date of birth, January twelfth, nineteen seventy-nine." She glanced at a rather handsome picture of the feline that was clipped to the file and she inspected it for a moment. She glanced down his solid jaw line and broad features that weren't too common in felines. She was glad that at least this feline was an exception to having more feminine quality that most felines did.

Reading farther into the file, she began feeling slight confusion and nervousness as she read down the reports. She noticed that his record for police brutality was rather high before his transfer to Interpol French division. It was reported many times that he was witnessed to beating fleeing criminals with the blunt side of his firearms and has deliberately rammed his patrol car into both criminals and property. He was a very talented officer all this was true, the numbers were all clear in front of her face, but his violent streak with criminals caused a small tinge of fear to crawl across her skin. Not wanting to delve any deeper into this, she closed the files and returned them into the folder they were coupled with.

Returning to the study, she tossed them onto the desk that Tom was working at and glanced at the papers that were slapped onto the desk. "Find anything you liked," the jackal questioned over his shoulder to the departing vixen. She paused if only for a moment before leaving the room. The jackal shook his head and continued working. "Kids."

* * *

The back door had opened that was littered with small windows running down its length and Indigo Blue stepped in. A pair of earmuffs hung around his neck as he stepped in and he stopped to glance down at Dorian who still lay on the couch. "Using my firing range now?" The dog chuckled to the ocelot's tone.

"I picked up every single bullet casing that I dropped, calm yourself. I was simply going out to buy more rounds. If we're going to be going up against Coal soon, I want my skills to not damper in the least while lying around here. I swear that panther's stomach could not heal any slower."

"I dunno, let's see how you fare having a slug planted into your gut." The dog shook his head as she headed for the door.

"Expectant of you, but no, you need all the help you can receive, lawman. I'll be back and yes I'll be using _my _car, not yours."

"Won't matter, I don't have my car anymore." He sighed and rolled over on the couch, shoving his face into the back cushion as his warm breath spread through the fibers and damped around his muzzle. His ears twitched to soft feet coming down the stairs slowly and he knew instantly that Scarlet was prowling nearby. "What do you want now?" His question went unanswered so he turned over to look up at the vixen who leered down at him with crossed arms.

From the angle he was from her, he got a gracious view of the two mounds that sprouted from her chest before focusing on her face. "What is it?" She bit her lower lip again and sat down, pushing his legs closer to his body so she had room to sit on the couch.

"We're having a talk."

"_We're_? There is no _we're_ here. There's me, and all these psychos living in my house. And I'm not doing a damn thing you say, understand?" His tone caused her fear to bubble up underneath again as she slightly inched away. Seeing her reaction to his voice, he calmed down a bit and sat up straight. "Just...can I have a moment to myself please? I'm not used to having so many people in my house."

"Listen, Booker...since we're living together, I'd like to know a little bit more about you. The only things I do know of you, aren't what I might call positive. You were one of my lover's targets and other than that, you're a Constable. Please, tell me something about yourself." Placing a soft paw on Dorian's knee, the ocelot moved his green gold eyes up from the vixen's paw to her face.

"You've got some brass, lady. I'll give you that much."

"Excuse me?" She cocked her head and withdrew her paw.

"I see where this is going. Flashing those green eyes of yours, arching your back and puffing out your chest. For god's sake, you're not even wearing a complete pair of shorts. You think you can confuse me with your beauty and try to jump my bones so you can do me in."

"What!? Why in the hell would you think of me trying to do that?!"

"Sounds pretty logical to me when I think about it. You, a cold blooded killer in my house who seduces and kills her targets for large sums of money and the sheer ecstasy of the kill. Why else would you even take the time of day to learn more about me? So you can learn more about your target, that's why."

"You paranoid bastard, I'm just trying to be friendly and this is how you view me? I may kill for a living, but I still feel like any other woman. I know more than you may think. I know more than how to break someone's neck or grind against some man's privates." The feline eased his glaring brows up as Scarlet withdrew from him and sat back down on the couch, staring hard into the coffee table.

"I can be friendly...I can be lonely and sad. And thanks to you, the knowledge that I can become angry has become apparent." Dorian looked at the woman for a moment and noticed her expression soften and damper. He glanced up and down her quickly and placed a paw on her shoulder, causing her to blink and shift her irises towards him.

"I'm...sorry. I just...I'm angry right now. Mostly at myself for being so stupid in how I got caught up in all this. This is my own damn fault, and I'm just trying to find someone else to blame. What do you want to know about me, Ms. Crimson?"

"Please Dorian...Scarlet." The feline nodded.

"Scarlet," he repeated in acknowledgment.

"Well...what is your middle name? I know it begins with an M, but it's just going to drive me crazy." Dorian cocked a brow.

"It's Mathias...why? And how do you know it started with an M?" Scarlet blinked and gave an innocent smile.

"Oh...I took a peek at your police file." Dorian slumped back down on the couch and blinked.

"Is nothing sacred in this world anymore?"

"Just a peek, I wanted to learn more about you. Tom won't tell me a damned thing and that loon Lucius isn't one for conversation. So...talk to me." Dorian gave a soft leer as he glanced from his right to her and closed his eyes with a sigh.

"Fine, what else do you want to know?" The vixen placed a finger to her lips in thought.

"I'm just going to get this out of the way now. What is it that causes such violent tendencies towards criminals?" The ocelot's ears perked and he looked back at the blazing red vixen.

"How much exactly did your read from my files?" She shook the point of her muzzle in his direction, coaxing him to answer her question.

"Fine," he sighed. "I just don't like law breakers, alright?"

"Now there's more to it then that. I didn't see you trying to break Indigo's muzzle with the side of your gun. Why them and not us?"

"Because I was young alright? I was young, I was angry and stupid. Do you want to learn anything else, princess?" He snapped at her, his tone rising as the memories of his past career fueled the dormant fires of his rage into his current situation. "And now I'm helping criminals, for god's sake I'm helping the very people I swore to bring into justice.

"This could cost me my badge...my reputation....my life. Everything I worked for would be broken into tiny little pieces; my life would be ruined if I had enough amnesty to not have it ended. And what do you do? You and your boyfriend play patty cake in my bed while some James Bond rip off digs around in my fridge and does god knows what all day in my study." He sighed out in frustration as he leaned back into the sofa and ran a paw over his face.

"And Carmelita...what would she do if she found this out? How would she deal with me after finding that I've been housing the very people that not only tried to kill me and her, but Sly Cooper as well?"

"Well believe it or not, I can do things Carmelita can't do. Carmelita, Carmelita, Carmelita. I swear it's like she's the only woman on this planet anymore."

"Least you don't have to worry she might murder you in your sleep!" Scarlet withdrew in a gasp.

"I've never done such a spineless act in my life. I've never murdered anyone in their sleep; they are always well awake right before they die with me." Dorian shook his head.

"Your method of disposal isn't exactly an improvement from that hyena friend of yours with the syringe." She broke into a dark laughter.

"Sterling Silver. That fool with the fake silver chops couldn't tell a barrel from the trigger. He has about as many holes in his face as he did his brain. I'm glad the bastard's dead, I could barely sleep knowing such slime crawled on this Earth." Her bottom lip quivered slightly as she folded her arms, her bosom propped on her forearms and accentuating the mounds, causing Dorian to take a moment's glance before staring out of the window to the soybean and wheat fields that separated Dorian's home from the Parisian hills that expanded to the back of his home.

Her eyes glistened with moisture as she tried to halt tears from streaming down her face by bringing her brows down hard. Dorian moved his irises towards her shuddering form and mentally sighed. Feeling his stare, she drew in a breath and began speaking. "I miss him...him and my brother. My brother...Coal's hurt me for the last time after that." Dorian eased his expression once more as he looked on at her, his heart softening up to the vixen.

She was a tornado of emotions, her lifestyle causing havoc on her ability to process her emotions in a healthy manner. Such a sad and confused creature she is. He wondered, what she would be like if she never knew Coal. "If it would have been different...do you think we would have been friends?" Dorian had no intention of saying those words to her, his mouth moved all on its own and his eyes widened to what he just said.

The vixen looked back at him and gave a light curve of her lips in an almost nonexistent smile. "Maybe," she said quietly, returning her attention to the window. Booker blinked and gave a somber grin as he glanced down at the floor, seeing the shining gloss of his polished boots.

"So," he said, giving a more lighthearted feeling to the conversation. "If I'm going to be working with you, I'll need to know the little things." She looked back at the feline and raised a brow.

"Little things?"

"Yeah, what kinda food you like. Music, hobbies, whatever you want to talk about." Scarlet glanced down at the floor in thought to this. Indigo had never asked this of her before; she wasn't used to sharing such things to others.

"Well I...I,"

"Want me to go first?" She immediately nodded her head as a way to escape from the spot light. "Well, I really like horror movies. Not those nonsense "modern horror" flicks with nothing but blood and guts every five minutes or screaming teenage girls. I like more of the classics, the kind that actually keeps you up at night and constantly peaking over your shoulder. You ever see the exorcist? Great movie, and my god was that a trip. Or what about the Shining? You see that one? Or the Omen?"

"Whoa now, calm down. Yes I've seen those movies, to my great disapproval mind you. I'm not one to go to a movie theatre to be scared out of my wits."

"Alright, your turn. What do you like?" She paused in thought, becoming a bit more comfortable to the situation.

"Well...forgive me; I don't normally talk about myself much. But I...I really enjoy fine art. I visited almost every art museum in this part of the world."

"Really, all of them?"

"Oh yes, every chance I can get, I drag Indigo along with me. Being in my profession we travel around a lot so for some free time I see the art each country has to offer."

"What do you enjoy the most?" Scarlet paused in thought once more.

"The architecture of old Gothic castles and manors." Dorian looked at her for a moment.

"You...you like that? For someone who doesn't like horror movies, you love the look of a haunted mansion?"

"I used to always beg Indigo if we could move into an old reconstructed castle. I think it would be lovely to just spend a week in one. Like living in the dark ages." She laughed as he shook his head with a smile. "Alright, your turn."

"How do you take your coffee?"

"That's not anything."

"I said I wanted to know the little things, c'mon."

"Black." Dorian wrinkled his muzzle.

"Disgusting, why not just start chewing on the coffee beans right from the bag?"

"Cream and sugar guy, huh?" The ocelot threw his arms up casually and then flopped them back onto the couch.

"What can I say, I'm not much of a coinsure for beverages."

"You know what I really love," she said as she leaned forward a bit. "Freshly washed silk sheets. Not much else in this world can compare to crawling into nice silk sheets in the middle of the night after a long day." Dorian smiled and nodded.

"I never had silk sheets myself, but I have this tie made from silk. I always catch myself rubbing it whenever I wear it."

"I love silk; I actually have a few pairs of these Chinese silk thongs I always wear, greatest things in the world." Dorian chuckled as he combed his hair back, easing more into the couch.

"I actually have this pair of silk boxers I bought a few years ago. But I didn't have the heart to ever open them since they cost me out the ass in euros." They both stopped as Dorian widened his eyes and Scarlet put a paw to her lips.

"Were...we really talking about that?" Dorian places a paw to the back of his neck.

"Yeah...I think we were..." The silence was thick in the air as neither one spoke, simply staring uneasily at one another. Just then, the front door opened and Indigo stepped inside, a bag full of boxes of .38 rounds in his arms. "Oh, Indigo, hey back already?" Dorian quickly stood off the couch and cleared his throat. Scarlet's tail puffed out a bit as she straightened her locks.

Indigo stared at them both with probing eyes as they darted back and forth towards each other. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say I just walked in while you two were busy humping each other." Scarlet's green eyes flashed as they drew open completely.

"Are you serious?"

"Who, me? With her, are you crazy?" Dorian glanced to Scarlet who glanced back at him.

"Why, there something wrong with me?" Dorian stepped back as Blue shook his head and began pulling out individual bullets from their packaging.

"Now I didn't mean it like that. You're gorgeous, wait I mean that...well what I'm trying to say is..." He decided to stop talking in hopes of salvaging what was left of his self respect as he glanced towards Indigo, looking for a way out of his current predicament.

The ocelot watched as the dog pulled out a small, thin tool that he used to bore holes into the tips of his bullets. "You know hallow points are illegal for civilians, right?" Blue glanced over his shoulder to the feline and curved his lips back.

"Of course, why else would I be making my own?" Dorian clenched his fist as he took a step closer to the dog.

"And why, may I ask, are you making perfectly legal rounds into illegal rounds?"

"Because you and I both know that ball points make neat, clean little holes and with measly .38 I need every advantage I can afford. And that means to make those little holes as big as possible." Scarlet watched as the two males shot responses back and forth.

"That doesn't mean I approve of you doing that in my house. You blew up my basement...and now that I think about it, I still have yet to see a reimbursement for the damages." The ocelot paused. "All twenty-seven thousand dollars worth of damage."

"Well it's not my fault you had so many expensive objects downstairs."

"Well it's not my fault you're still alive...Oh wait, I forgot, twice now I've managed not to kill you. Once indirectly, and the second time I had the gun on your head."

"You'll have your money."

Scarlet looked towards Blue, cutting into the conversation. "No, it doesn't look like it. Coal froze our accounts and all of our money has been rerouted back into the organization. All of the money we have is in our safe houses scattered around the world...and even then it's no more than a couple thousand in petty cash. So the only way Dorian is getting paid is if somebody gets a part-time job."

"Or, if somebody starts performing hits." To which Blue replied. "I'm still a little injured, but a local gang has a job for me. They want me to kill a rat before he squeaks to the boys in blue. Jeaque' Montebleau. They're paying a hefty ten K...small money, but I figure if I can gain a reputation in the underground again, I can eventually earn enough money to pay Dorian back and see if I can't start-"

"Paying me rent, food, and utilities?" Dorian added. Blue shook his head, "Well it's about time that you do. You're getting a free-ride off of my pocket book and- WAIT!" Blue and Scarlet looked at Dorian in surprise. "Jeaque' Montebleau!? You can't kill him! Carmelita and I have been working on the Rat Claw gang case on the side! For four months! And not to mention you'd completely ruin the case for some of the officers who have been working on that case for _years_!"

Dorian continued his protest**, **"You can't just go out and blow such a key witness! I know eight cops whose promotions hinge on this case being a success. If you kill him, you'll be cheating those cops and their families out of more than just $10,000! I won't let you do it!"

"Won't let me do it? And just how do you plan to stop me?" A barrel of a .22 revolver was pressed against the dog's forehead. "Ah. That way."

Dorian holstered the revolver, "Seriously, I shouldn't have to lecture you, but how about you try doing some community service? I don't know....there are a couple of drug dealers up in Paris who could stand to be taken out. In fact, you could probably get a rival drug dealer to hire you...and then have another drug dealer hire you to take out your former employer."

The ocelot smiled. "You'd be getting paid. I'd get to take your money. The streets of Paris would be clean...at least for a little while. Don't you see it? You have a job. You make money. I take your money. I charge you for rent. And Paris is clean. Everybody wins!"

"Everyone except me." Blue frowned, but resumed converting the ball rounds into hollow points until Dorian grabbed the tool from Blue's paw and snapped it in half. He then grabbed Blue's empty revolver and the six rounds he had already converted before taking them outback and shooting them.

"Don't forget," Dorian said as he came back, "That Scarlet is in the same boat as you. The same goes for Tom and his body suit-wearing boyfriend. I expect to be paid handsomely for my services."

Dorian looked at Scarlet, and the vixen gave him a look of disgust. "Why are you looking at me like-" She growled, "Do I act like a whore to you?" Dorian shook his head.

"That could be debatable...but I wasn't going to tell you to sleep with me. I know a much better woman I'd rather spend my nights with." Scarlet's hackles stood on end as she bore her teeth. He would rather sleep with Carmelita than with her!?

"But what I was saying was that there is an old country store about five miles down the road that's looking for some beautiful hired help."

"The old woman would have kittens and hire you immediately if you came through her doors...she was once a model...and perhaps she can appreciate your beauty. Who knows you might get better pay too. After all, you're getting first class boarding at the Booker Bread in fucking Breakfast." Scarlet's expression simmered.

"You want me to get a job?"

"And why not? I won't have you sit on your ass all day, you'll lose your figure, and I don't think Blue would like that very much." The creaking of steps from upstairs caused everyone in the living room to glance towards the stairs as Tom stepped down from the second story. He smiled at the staring faces.

"Was I not invited to the party?" His eyes focused to Dorian who stepped up closer to the jackal.

"As I was saying, everyone here, including you are going to have to earn their keep here. That means you pay for my expenses. Food, supplies, you'll also clean and launder your own cloths as well as the sheets to the guest bed. You tell that to your friend upstairs as well. Got me?" The jackal placed his paws up defensively.

"Of course, of course, chum. It never crossed my mind once to be taking advantage of you; you can count me into this little financial plan of yours. Bloody hell, don't everyone trample on me at once now."

* * *

The sickening crunch of wet meat and bone bounced off the walls of the dimly lit concrete room as a bare light bulb swung erratically from an electrical wire that hung down from the center of the roof. The bloody and beaten body of a Shiba Inu sat on a fold out chair, stripped bare of any clothing. His ears drooped on his head as his curled tail lay uncoiled behind him. Coughing, he littered the cold concrete floor with crimson and fragments of teeth. The sweet smell of Cuban tobacco tickled at his nose as he slowly lifted his fox like head towards the glowing tip of a burning cigar in the darkness.

Stepping closer to the dog, the ominous figure lurking in the shadows was partially revealed to the dog's dark eyes, the forming of a tall and chiseled figure became apparent. Every muscle group of the lengthy arms could be seen under the jet black fur that covered his body; a tight undershirt hugged his toned chest, the white fabric caked with crimson. The face remained shrouded in darkness; the probing black irises from his eyes were alight from the orange glow of his cigar as the outline of gleaming white fangs could be seen between his lips. "I have to give you credit," his smooth as silk voice slithered out from the darkness, the tone so elegant and clear, yet shady that it felt as if the voice slithered across the floor like a serpent and slowly coiled around his neck. "Most would be dead by now from the trauma to the brain I have been causing. Tell me," he said as he stepped a little closer, leaning down so that his head was placed to the left of the Shiba's.

"Describe what you are feeling to me at this very moment." The light seemed to avoid revealing his face no matter the circumstance. It was as if the shadows themselves moved around the room in order to keep his face hidden. "Go on now; I want to know exactly what it is you are feeling. Describe it to me...please."

The dog slowly shook his head as he gave out a whimpering sob from deep in his throat. "Interesting," Coal responded. "Shame on me, I should be taking notes. Mr. Durbin, could you please take a look up there? At that clock on the wall just above the door."

Durbin did as instructed as he weakly raised his head towards the clock's pale, white face. "The clock reads twelve fifty-five a.m. At exactly eleven fifty-five a.m. I asked you a simple question, 'Why have you defected from my cause, and who are you now working for?' You responded by giving me no information of any value and to, how did you say? Go shove one of my lit cigars up my ass and die?

"Yes I believe that was the statement you used." He spoke as he paced, the sound of his footsteps in the darkness gave an unsettling aura to the dog as he wasn't able to place the origin of the noise accurately. Then, nearly jumping out of his fur, he felt a pair of paws being placed on his shoulders as Coal seemed to materialize right behind him. "Well as you could have imagined this did not bode well with me. And now an hour has passed since you decided to not tell me what I wanted to know.

"An hour of solid physical torture later, we find ourselves in the current scenario as of now." Raising his left paw, he slowly stroked the side of the dog's face with the front side of his paw. "I don't want to kill you, Durbin. From what your employers tell you of me, I am a soulless demon who enjoys the suffering of others and feeds off it like a leech does by suckling the blood from the body. I would say that your employer is absolutely one hundred percent correct; I am a soulless demon who revels in the suffering of others. But that does not mean I can't be unreasonable or unmerciful."

He ceased rubbing the side of the dog's head and slowly paced around until he stared directly into the dog's eyes. "Who do you now serve?" Mr. Durbin raised his chin defiantly as his body shuddered to the pain that coursed through it, feeling the warm sticky blood drying against his fur. "I'd prefer you tell me now." He was graced with no response.

"Very well," Coal stated calmly. Grabbing the back of the chair, he dragged the dog across the room until he kicked open a door and emerged into another equally dark chamber. Unlatching the canine's bonds, Coal prepared for the coming scenario as Durbin slumped onto the floor as he tried to stand up and crawled towards the door. The dog's pace was halted as he felt the sole of a shoe being lightly pressed against his head and pin his cranium against the floor. "Move any farther and I'll press until your brain squeezes out of your nose."

Durbin remained motionless. Grabbing him by the scruff of his neck, Coal lifted him with a single arm and lifted him up onto his feet. Pulling on the leather straps that he hooked onto the ceiling, he bound the dog's wrists together and left him suspended by the cords as he went over to a sink and filled a large bucket full of water. Chucking the bucket towards the limp body, cold water splashed against the dog and drenched him to the bone. Droplets cascaded off his naked body as he watched with lazy eyes at the devil that carried a portable electric generator in one paw while a bundled of coiled black wires were clutched in the other.

"I offered you a chance to avoid all of this, and you spit in my face. Let it be known that at exactly," he glanced back at the open door towards the clock on the wall. "One twenty-two a.m. You chose not to tell me what I wanted to know, and therefore inflicted this coming pain onto yourself for the next hour." Setting the generator onto the floor, he connected one end of the cables to it, which touching the other ends together, seeing a sharp flash of electricity spark to life for a moment. "I suggest you scream, as loudly as possible. It helps to satisfy me and I might make this last only forty-five minutes or so."

* * *

"I'm sorry, sir. But Mr. Black is unavailable to see you at the moment." The secretary at the front desk, a wolverine continued to flash a plastic smile to the crow that demanded an audience with Black.

"Tell him it's urgent, he needs this information ASAP. What the hell is it that's so important to keep him at this time?" His question was answered with an earsplitting scream of agony; the light fixtures of the office room began flickering erratically. The wolverine cleared his throat and calmly stated, "He is busy with another client at the moment. Shall I make you an appointment to see him?" Another scream of pain followed by the sputtering of electrical currents sparking and shuddering graced the crow's hearing. He slowly shook his head and slapped a file down onto the wolverine's desk.

"Just make sure he sees this as soon as possible."

* * *

A solid hour later, the doors opened and the group of animals and reptiles that had congregated near the door quickly scattered away like cockroaches. Immediately, the smell of burning hair and meat burst through the open doorway, coaxing the nosy solicitors to cough and gag as they dissipated. They parted like the red sea as a tall, dark figure walked through them. Coal cleared his throat and addressed his men. "I'll need my chambers cleaned and any trash you find disposed of. Also, the light bulbs are in need of changing."

"Right away, sir," said a cat as he beckoned for assistance. Coal brushed past them on his way towards his room until he was stopped by Mr. Kane, his secretary.

"Sir, I have a file here that was requested you read it as soon as you were available." Black blinked his eyes and slowly clutched the folder, flipping it open and scanning his eyes over the text forms. "I trust your appointment went well, sir?" Black glanced up from the papers and quirked a brow.

"Quite," he said in a rather cheery tone. He then returned to the files. "How long ago was this?"

"About an hour ago I received the files, sir."

"No, how long ago did this occur?"

"Oh you mean the intrusion? I would say...about a day and a half ago, sir. A pair of animals had infiltrated the compound early Sunday morning. A panther dressed in some sophisticated stealth suit and a jackal dressed in business attire and a brown coat."

"Jackal...? Did this jackal have an accent, a British one?" The wolverine placed a finger to his chin in thought.

"I believe the reports claim he did, sir. He was able to pass security by disguising himself as another guardsman. I believe the mask he used was recovered from the compound."

"I wish to see it, bring it to me and have it sent to my office. I will be retiring to my room." He handed the files back to Kane to be properly stored as Coal began walking down the bustling halls towards his chamber. "Tom, how much have you already figured out?" He scratched his chin and headed for the wash room, stripping his bloodied clothing and entering the shower.

Warm water slid down his toned body, the trails of water tracing down the crevice of his back and the numerous scars that drew swaths through his body. Intricate gold spirals were tattooed down the back of his neck and the length of his back that resembled hieroglyphics of ancient times passed. Combing his fingers through the sleek black hair on his head, he sighed and examined his neck, feeling a small malformation from where Roy had snapped his neck bone from their final confrontation. Probing the spot with his fingers, he roughly jammed his fingers against the small spot and realigned the vertebrae, causing a sickening crack to echo through the shower stall, yet he remained unfazed by it. "Should be fully grown back together in a few weeks time."

As he washed, blood slid off his body and swirled down the stainless drain of the shower stall. He closed his eyes, mulling over the thoughts in his mind. His league of world class assassins had fallen apart in such a short amount of time. Ivory White, the spirit medium had died inside a burning building a few years ago. Sterling Silver, a master of silent death at the hands of poison was killed, slain by his own will. Indigo Blue and Scarlet Crimson, two soul mates that operated as a single entity that used their abilities to entrance their foes before killing them whether from kind words and intoxication, or the sexual desire of others had failed him twice now and fled from his wrath.

He had hoped that their constant friendly habits would have led to Scarlet becoming pregnant and giving Black a new apprentice to raise and train from childbirth. But he found promise in Pyrite Gold; a youth he had found huddled in the cold that had shot at him out of his childish fears. Taking the boy in, he found promise in his abilities and kept his identity a secret as he trained him to become the greatest student in their craft. "Where are you, Pyrite?" He wondered out loud the whereabouts of his young apprentice, hearing the echoing voice of Ivory's spirit that had informed him that the cheetah had failed to assassinate both Blue and Crimson.

He felt the notch in his left ear from where Pyrite's bullet had grazed it when he first appeared to the youth. "The boy has failed if what Ivory said was true...then I suppose I am in need of an audience with young Gold." His lips creased back, giving a thin smile as he inspected his onyx black claws against his long fingers.

* * *

The Lincoln town car glided across the pavement as the driver exited the vehicle. Jogging down to open the passenger door of the sedan, Coal emerged from the shadowy confines of the luxury car and stalked towards Reeves' manor. The crime lord had not been the most frequent of visitors to the good doctor's home, but the dark individual had calculated that if Gold had failed, he was most likely injured and therefore was resting here. Striding towards the door, he pressed the door bell and patiently waited, his ears perking up to the sound of coming footsteps. A possum came to the door, his stout and weathered face hinted his age.

"Can I..." he was about to say until Coal breezed right past him, the length of his coat swaying lightly behind him. "Excuse me!" The rodent snapped as he placed a paw, halting the man in black. "Do you have an appointment with Dr. Reeves?" The dark canine like head of Coal slowly turned and he leered at his obstacle from under the brim of his black fedora.

"I do not require one, do not hinder me." The rodent refused to let go his hold of Coal's shoulder as he gave a verbal warning.

"I will have to call security to force you off the premises if you do not leave this-

His statement was cut off as Coal clutched the paw on his shoulder and quickly twisted around, pulling the arm forward and grabbing the rodent's neck as he flew towards his open palm. Dropping the rodent's paw, Coal squeezed against the possum's neck as he slowly lifted him off the ground with a single arm. The butler wriggled and gagged in Coal's grasp as he continued to crush his throat. "Do not....hinder me."

"Coal?" A shrill voice that sounded like shattered glass scratched at the dark man's ears as he shifted his pitch black irises towards the chameleon stepping down the stairs.

"Rasputin," Coal responded, still holding the possum in the air.

"Coal, it is you. How happy I am to see you after such a long time." The reptile moved his eyes up towards his doorman that was slowly loosing consciousness. Cracking and popping noises gurgled from his gaping mouth as Coal only tightened his grip. "Would you please put him down? He was only doing his job and I'm far too busy to look for another doorman."

"Hmm? Oh, the possum. Yes, yes of course." Coal shook his head as if he had completely forgotten about the strangled animal he gripped. Loosening his hold, the tux wearing rodent crumpled to the floor and coughed and wheezed and sputtered as he massaged his rough neck.

"You alright, Humphrey?" Reeves asked to the rodent on the floor. The possum slowly nodded as he sucked in air. Climbing off the floor, he coughed and straightened the lay of his bow tie and cleared his throat.

"Fortunately you pay me in half my body weight otherwise I'd probably be finding another job." Reeves _tsked _and shook his head.

"In this economy, you'll be lucky to be pumping gas these days." The reptile then turned to Coal. "So, my friend. What is it that I can do for you today?"

"Well, your doorman has supplied me with a nice workout so I should thank you for that. But also,"

"Wait, let me guess. You wish to see the boy, yes?"

"Yes, that is why I'm here." The chameleon clapped his green hands together and sighed in glee.

"Ah I love being right. He's this way. Recuperating from multiple gun shot wounds and one that just barely missed his heart. Thankfully the bullet passed right through otherwise it would have been far more of a hassle. He asked me that I not tell you I've been housing him for quite some time."

"I can understand this. But let him rest assured he will not die from my hand this day."

"My study is to the far left of the second story. Please, help yourself to a drink while I go fetch the boy." Black nodded his head walked off on his own. Opening the door to the study, he quickly spied the liquor cabinet and sampled some of Reeves' hospitality. Opening a bottle filled with a dark crimson liquid, he sniffed the concoction of fermented sugars and grape as he poured the wine into a glass and took a sip. His ears stiffened to footsteps down the hall and heading towards the study.

"There we are," He heard Reeves state. "Don't mind taking off your coat for a moment, Coal. Stay for a moment, it's been ages."

"I'll keep it on, thank you." He stated as he turned towards the chameleon and a youthful cheetah. He tipped his glass towards the boy. "Pyrite, I trust your injuries have healed." The youth's constantly narrowed brows softened up a bit as he lowered his head partially, feeling much like a small child facing a parent's scolding.

"Yes, sir. They have."

"Wonderful to hear." He then turned to Reeves who sat behind his desk. "Reeves, what is the payment for your services?" The reptile blinked and calculated the numbers in his head.

"Hmm, an extended stay, followed by multiple bullet removals along with minor physical therapy and tissue repairs. Forgoing all the details, including some property damage while he was joy riding, I would say the grand total would be approximately thirty-thousand." Coal nodded and pulled out a wad of folded bills, flipping each slip of green paper one at a time as he counted thirty-thousand. "All in cash, splendid," the reptile said as he eagerly reached for the stack of crisp Franklins. "Always a pleasure, Coal."

"As to you, Rasputin. I revel in drinking all your wine from time to time." He smirked as he took another drink from his glass, swirling the blood red liquid in his glass as his irises darted towards Gold.

"Look, I don't need a baby sitter. I slipped up, I understand. But it wasn't my fault, so stop looking at me like that."

"Then whose fault was it, boy?" The cheetah paused in thought for a moment.

"Some British guy with a machine pistol popped outta nowhere and helped Blue and Crimson. If it wasn't for him, I would have had both of them dead quickly and efficiently." Coal's eyes widened.

"A British man you say?" Gold nodded.

"Yeah, sounded like some kinda cheap James Bond rip-off. Why?"

"Was this man a jackal? Sandy gold fur, yellow speckled eyes? Business attire?"

"Yeah," Gold said. "Why do you ask? You know this guy, boss?" Coal's paw shook slightly, the wine in the glass sloshing around with his shaking paw.

"Reeves," the dark man said as he turned to the reptile. "I'm afraid I cannot stay long. Something has arisen that I need to have taken care of, you understand." The doctor nodded.

"Of course, of course don't let me keep you." Coal tossed his head back and finished the last of his glass.

"Thank you for your hospitality and for the care of my young apprentice here. Come along boy," he addressed Gold. As they reached the lot, Coal turned to the youth. "I have another assignment for you." The feline glanced up as he was being addressed.

"This Englishman you encountered, I want him eliminated. I do not care how, I just want it done. I trust your skills have not dampened during your time recuperating?"

"With pleasure, sir," the feline smiled eagerly for revenge as he pulled off the black and gold trimmed beret from his head. Walking towards his freshly repaired Ninja ZX-14, the black and gold beauty of a vehicle gleamed from a fresh polishing and he mounted it. Slipping on a pair of gloves, he zipped up the dark leather jacket and placed his helmet upon his head. Wheeling up towards Coal once more, he lifted the visor from his helmet and smirked.

"The man goes by the name Tom. Do not bother tracking down any residence; he has no sort of incriminating data about him. Tom isn't even his true name."

"How do you expect me to find him, sir?"

"Trust me; he will make his presence known to you. Just stay in Paris, he resides somewhere in the city and will not be leaving knowing that my main headquarters is also based in the city." The youth nodded and slapped the visor down. Twisting his wrist, the motorcycle roared to life as he lifted the front wheel off the ground and blasted forward, the front wheel falling back onto solid ground and he sped off with remarkable speed and grace.


	25. The End

**Chapter 25**

**The End**

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_Author's note: Twenty-five chapters in and there's still so much story to tell. Fortunately, you all seem to be enjoying every new chapter that IgnorantOne and I keep coming out with. As I usually do after a certain period of time, I reflect on how far we've come from the first few chapters I wrote on my own, and then how they've improved ten fold thanks to my beta's brilliant contribution. (If you're looking for a good read by the way, go check the anime section of the site and look for their new section "Bagi, the Monster of mighty Nature." IgnorantOne's latest fanfiction post which is sure to impress if you're a fan of the movie, or even if you're just hearing about it for the very first time.)_

_Anyway, thanks for the reviews, the support, and all around sticking around while IO and I hammer out these chapters for you to enjoy. It's been quite a journey so far, and I don't plan on it to slow down anytime soon. _

_Tex_

* * *

"**A**lright, Murray, Penelope and I have control over the grid. It's your turn to head into the engineering bay and take care of the three key players I informed you about."

"Rodger that, little buddy. The Murray will deal with any and all evil doers with utmost efficiency and pain."

"...Right. I'll have their locations marked on your binoc-u-com. Radio me if you need anything taken care of from our end here." Murray replaced the single scoped pink binoc-u-com into his pocket and clenched his fists. Lumbering down the first corridor, the man his first objective dealt with was busy overseeing the construction of the new Clockwerk, watching from on high on the second story of the complex. Not being one for subtlety, his presence was soon discovered as he pounced onto an unfortunate dog and slammed his fist into the body he sat atop of.

Three more came, leveling their rifles to him as he charged forward, grabbing the rifle barrels and tearing them from their clawed fingers. Bashing one over the head with his firearm, he grabbed the second guard and slammed him into the wall as the third suffered from an uppercut that caused him to soar up to smash against the ceiling and then fall to the floor. "Alright! I'm gettin' pumped!" His enthusiasm plummeted as he heard the clambering of more troops and the smack of automatic fire hitting against the walls around him.

"Uh oh," the hippo said as he bolted in the other direction. Losing track of him, the assembled group of canines sniffed about for a few moments longer, searching the vicinity of the newly opened path in front of them. Murray hugged himself against the wall on the other side, remaining still as he ceased breathing, waiting to confirm his presence was forgotten. Peeking over the edge of his cover, he quickly sprinted down the corridor as the guards were distracted. First on his agenda was a French rat by the name of Stuka Carson.

It didn't take long for the hippo to find the engineering bay as it filled more than half the complex. He watched quietly from the scaffolding as he gripped the handrails tightly, his red gloves stretching against his knuckles. With his quickly darting eyes, he spotted the rat strutting around the floors, twirling a club tied to a leather strap in his paws as his left eye was purple and slightly squinted. "Hey...guy kinda looks familiar." A fuzzy image from his memory came to pass through his mind that happened months ago when Sly and he stormed that gang hideout.

He clicked his fingers in remembrance as he remembered burying his fist into the animal's face. "Man, guy sure is pretty unlucky. Maybe I should go easy on em'." He flipped over the railing and landed on his feet, alerting the immediate staff, including Carson. "Vous là, arrêtez-vous!" (You there, stop!) he shouted to the hippo that quirked a brow to his high-pitched shrills.

"Yeah? Well up yours too, buddy." He wound up a fist and slammed it into one of the engineers and sent him flying backwards. Grabbing another by the head, his entire hand clutched his cranium as he tossed him and caused him to knock down another three workers. "Yeah, strike!" Stuka gasped as he glanced around, seeing no one left conscious to defend him so he quivered with his club held up in defiance. The small rodent shrank as Murray slowly plodded towards him.

"Pas dans le visage, s'il vous plaît!" (Not in the face, please!) Stuka quickly turned around but halted as his face met the wall and he slumped down unconscious. Murray shrugged, but struck a heroic pose and flexed his arms.

"Uh, ahem. Another evil-doer subdued by The Murray!" His mind then shifted to his next target as he remembered Bentley's words that the lupine welder frequented the southern workplace. Sprinting down the adjacent hallway, the corridor opened up into a smaller, more private work bay as he saw the burning glow of a blowtorch spitting hot sparks in all directions. "Yo Stone, ready for a knuckle sandwich served upfront?"

The wolf turned off the flame from his torch and flipped up the face shield, glancing to the large hippo. He sighed and shook his head. "I'm kinda busy right now. Why don't you go entertain some kids at a birthday party you fat buffoon?" He quickly pulled out a nine-millimeter pistol sitting next to his tools and leveled the sights on the pink hippopotamus.

"Hey Bentley, I need ya to kill the lights here." The wolf tilted his head in confusion to the hippo and then fell into complete darkness as the light fixtures completely shut down. Fumbling around for a flashlight, he clicked on the dim light source and saw the hippo standing directly in front of him and his hand around the barrel of his gun. With a quick squeeze of his hand, Murray rendered the gun useless to fire and smacked the grey furred mammal in the snout, and then slowly slid the face shield back down onto the animal's face. "That's two, one to go."

"Good work so far, Murray. Next is Corbin Derringer. Since he's head of data management, he'll be near our position on the power grid."

"Got it," Murray gave a thumbs up and nodded as he stored his binoc-u-com and began jogging back to the position marked by the hologram Bentley displayed for him to follow. Barreling down the halls, he quickly tucked his legs and arms in as he flew like a cannonball down the length of the hallway and slammed into another group of dogs. "Body slam," he shouted, flexing his arms in victory. Turning down the left, he buried his heels into the floor to immediately halt as he glanced towards the weasel behind the partially opened door typing on many terminals at once. Sitting in his chair, he wheeled across the station, typing on two different keyboards with both ambidextrous paws at one time.

Instead of announcing his presence this time with a heroic chant or a verbal taunt, he decided to tiptoe behind the animal, quickly grabbing the back of Derringer's chair, and flinging his arms and causing the seat to spin at an alarming speed. Derringer, caught off guard was flung from his seat and slid across the floor, smacking his head against where the terminals sprouted out from the floor. "Weasel, corner pocket."

"How many hours a day do you take to write your material?"

"Ah, just havin' a little fun, Bentley. Anyway, these clowns are all outta commission. Tell Sly and Carmelita it's their time to shine."

"Rodger that, I'll contact them in a bit. You'll be on standby till I call you again, keep your signal open."

* * *

Cooper rubbed his throbbing face again as he and Carmelita Fox lightly stepped down the long stretch of grated floors and metal walls. The two animals continued following the digital read out of the complex supplied by the raccoon's binoc-u-com as they attempted to establish a solid connection with Bentley's communication line. For now they were on standby, and as always it nagged at Sly to no end. Scratching the back of his neck with the hook of his cane, he reached farther down to his back and itched roughly against it, his leg twitching frantically as his scratching quickened in pace. Carmelita watched him for a moment as she saw that he had stopped.

"...What are you doing?" He immediately stopped, glancing up at her as he drew the cane away from his back.

"...Nothing." He cleared his throat as he stood up straight, tugging on his sweater. "Sorry...it just feels _really _good." Fox shook her head and continued walking, Cooper following close in a puppy dog like manner. "That friend of yours told us to head for the garage area, right?" Sly nodded.

"Yep, the walls aren't as thick there, and since the doors will most likely be open, it'll give us a good signal for him to contact us when it's our turn to kick into gear." She reached up and ran her fingers through the hairs on the side of his face. Noticing his eyes wince, she withdrew.

"Is it bad?" He grimaced.

"Nothing broken by some miracle," he smiled somberly. She reached up and touched his face once again, a little more gently this time as she ran her fingers against the tips of his hairs and whiskers. "So..." he said as they walked.

"So..." she responded.

"So...what do you plan on doing once we get this all said and done with?" He kept his eyes trained on her as he eagerly awaited a response. She took her time with her answer, knowing fully well what the raccoon wanted to hear.

"Well," she finally spoke. "First things first...I'm going to revert my apartment back from a fortress into a comfortable old room again. Then...take a nice long hot shower." Cooper chuckled as they both turned down the path to the left.

"I meant in like the long run, what are your plans?" She smirked as she kept him in suspense again, noting his reaction.

"Well...I'll be heading back to work; Dorian will have his car back which I'm sure he's pulling his hair out over right now. And..."

"And...?" The raccoon leaned forward. She huffed and flattened her ears as she pushed him away.

"Oh c'mon, you know damn well what's going to happen. So wipe that stupid look off your face." Cooper laughed again as he was pushed away, curling an arm around her as they walked and planting a kiss on her forehead.

"And here I thought you'd never take me back again."

"Oh the thought was tempting of kicking you out on your tail, but I would probably suffer just as much as you would. So...why bother?" Cooper grinned as he clutched the brim of his hat.

"And...Any other plans after that?" Carmelita lowered her brows in knowing.

"What do you think?"

"C'mon...humor me." She sighed in frustration.

"I'll just get it out of the way now since we're being so childish over it. When are you going to get the ring?" The inside of her chest seemed to grow as light as a feather as her heart began beating so fast, she had to strain herself to hear what he had to say. Finally he spoke.

"Now I can't tell you that. It wouldn't be traditional."

"Since when has anything between us ever been traditional, ringtail?"

"...I love you." He sighed in comfort. The noisy buzzing from within his holster coaxed him to reach into the folds and pull out his binoc-u-com.

"Alright, Sly, Murray is almost finished on his end. You and Carmelita ready for your phase of the plan?" Sly gave a nod to his long time friend.

"We're both ready and willing to get this over with, Bentley. Give us the info and we'll be right on it." Bentley nodded.

"Alright. Since Murray has finished with his end by clearing out the main engineers overseeing Clockwerk's reconstruction, we can rest assured no one is currently working on the project. Now we need to find the schematics to make sure no one can continue to finish him." The turtle was interrupted by a beeping noise from the background. Setting down his binoc-u-com, Sly could hear the tapping of keys furiously until Bentley returned to the screen. "Sly, we've got a problem."

"Right on que. And here I was beginning to think our lucky streak would never run out."

"Turns out we've been discovered by some of Kirill's men and they're converging on our position as of now. Penelope and I have our hands tied up here with the power grid so we'll need you and Carmelita up here pronto to stave off the guards till we can hack into the blast door controls."

"Rodger that, send me the coordinates and we'll be there ASAP."

"Sending them now, I'll have it marked with a hologram to your binoc-u-com." Replacing the device into his pocket, Carmelita pulled out her confiscated firearm and flipped off the safety. Sly's ears perked up to the familiar mechanical clicks of the gun and he turned around.

"You're not planning on using that on anyone, I hope." The fox quirked a brow as they continued running down the hall.

"In a situation where it's them or you, what would you do, Cooper?" The raccoon shook his head.

"I'm not the right person to answer that." As they followed the trail towards the control area, a barren floor that was once littered with laser grids opened up to them, a melted power box looking back at them from the other side of the room. Noise from behind them caused Sly to grip his cane tightly as Fox leveled the firearm to the origins of the sounds down the hallway. Cooper placed a paw on the bridge of the gun, staring back at her. "I don't want anyone killed here."

She shook his paw off the gun and flipped the safety on. "Alright already, if anything I'll use it as a club. But I won't make any promises it won't discharge if my life was in danger."

"Alright," he nodded somberly. "If anyone does have to die here, I hope to god it won't be you."

"You either, call out incase you need my help." She leveled the gun to the oncoming group of dogs that rounded the corner of the hallway. Sly's eyes grew as he saw Carmelita depress the trigger despite his wishes. The bullet soared, but instead of smacking into flesh, it tore open one of the pipes that lined the ceiling as warm steam poured out onto the assembled group of guards. He looked back at the fox who returned his stare with a wink.

The dogs stopped in their tracks as Sly and Carmelita dove into the cloud of mist, using the steam as a smoke screen as the dog's had no clue as to what was happening. Sly bashed with his cane, tearing rifles and sidearms from their fingers as he swung around and delivered a powerful blow with the broad side of his cane to their heads. Carmelita swiped her booted feet across muzzle after muzzle with powerful swinging kicks as she grabbed one dog's arm twice the size of her and held it up as she buried her fist into his stomach. As the smoke cleared, the moisture caused from the steam began freezing over, causing the grated floors to become slick with frost as the mass of bodies tumbled and thrashed over one another. One dog stood as he glanced to his comrade, cocking his head to the side as he saw a raccoon sitting on the other husky's shoulders. Sly smiled and waved to the other dog as he glanced down as the head below him glanced up, meeting eye to eye with one another.

He gasped in realization until it was too late, Sly bringing down his cane to hook the back of the dog's belt; he pulled with all his might as he flipped the dog over and tossed him into his ally. "Bentley, we've got things covered here, how bout you?"

"The doors are starting to yield. We'll have them shut tight in a few moments. You two are doing well out there." He nodded and glanced towards Carmelita as she finished flooring another dog. Brushing the curls from her eyes, she sighed and holstered her gun she clutched with the barrel in her paw and the handle sticking out like a hammer.

Glancing up, she smirked towards the raccoon who returned her smile, glancing behind her to see a dog skulking from the back of the hallway. He sucked in a breath as he shouted and pointed towards the canine who charged for the small fox, a gun drawn as he pounced. Carmelita turned around and flipped the gun into her paw so that she gripped the trigger as two shots echoed out, the dog landing atop of the fox and flooring both forms. "Carmelita!" He quickly pushed the limp body off her as blood began splotching on the front of his clothing.

Lifting her head from the floor, he cupped the side of her face and gently shook her, seeing a small hole punched through her leather jacket. "Carmelita..." A horrid feeling welled up inside his chest as he felt like his head swelled and grew warm, a rancid taste lacing his throat. His ears rang and pounded in his head to the sound of his beating heart to notion that he could possibly be holding the deceased form of his love. "Carmelita..." he said in a quivering tone, tears welling up in his eyes.

His head began to hang low until his forehead landed against her chest, burying his face in her as his body began to quake. "No...No, no, no, no, no..." he kept repeating as he shook his head while it was pressed against her chest. His ears twitched to the thump of her heart as his eyes opened wide, hearing a soft groan emit from above his head as he felt the vibration of her vocal cords in her neck. Bringing his face away from her chest, he saw two brown eyes staring up at him. His mouth hung open in disbelief.

"You...you're...how?" She sat up straighter as she fished through her jacket and pulled out the gold shield of her Interpol badge, the two animals seeing a mangled piece of lead smashed against it. Sly remained silent as he touched the badge, sliding his fingers across the engraving as he plucked the bullet from it. "That was..."

"A once in a million chance," she finished for him. He dropped the bullet onto the ground and immediately lunged for her, hugging her so tightly it nearly forced all the air from her lungs.

"Thank every known deity in the world you're alive!"

"S-Sly...too tight..."

"Oh, sorry." He loosened his embrace on her, but the moment he did, he re-embraced her form again and buried his face into her neck. "I'm just so relieved." She patted his head and rubbed his upper back she hugged him in return.

"I'm fine, ringtail. I don't plan on leaving you anytime soon." The buzzing of his binoc-u-com coaxed the raccoon's ears to twitch as he reached into his holster.

"Sly! Are you alright? Is Carmelita alright? We saw everything on camera!" Sly nodded as relief coursed through his body, leaving his paws shaking and heart beating.

"She's fine, Bentley, we both are. You should be alright behind those doors now." The turtle nodded.

"Oh thank heaven. Forgive me for putting you two through that."

"Its fine, turtle," Carmelita piped in from the background. "Just like to know beforehand next time if someone's sneaking up behind us. The way we work, anyone could die at any moment; I guess this is just a way of reminding me of my own mortality." Sly nodded as he smiled at her.

"Ain't she just the greatest?" Bentley smirked.

"Well, I don't mean to sound like a total jerk here, but since you're both fine, Murray's finished his end of the operation and now it's up to both of you to bring this place to a halt."

"Mincov...he's mine."

"Not so fast now, Sly," Bentley raised his hands up to the monitor screen. "First thing's first, get those schematics. Rip it to pieces, burn it, and grind the ashes till there's nothing left. Comb the area for any copies and do whatever you can to prevent that buzzard from ever seeing the light of day again." Sly nodded.

"You got it, Bentley. Leave everything to us, and then I'll be going for Mincov."

"Mincov will most likely try and stop you when you're busy skulking around his compound. Stay on high alert for anymore ambushes from him. He's got a mind wired for war and has had many years to perfect his abilities."

"Not to mention he could probably chuck those forklifts in the engineering bay at us." Bentley nodded, pausing as he typed furiously on his keyboard. The sights of the binoc-u-com shifted towards storage areas as well as once high traffic workshops. Thanks to Murray now however, all the rooms were barren of staff.

"I've marked any possible areas with holograms, as well as Mincov's current position. If he comes after you' you'll know when to hide. And use his left blind eye to your advantage. He won't be able to see as well from his left flank so when he's turned around, it should give you two a good amount of time to sprint to another corner you can hide in." Sly nodded his head and closed the communication line.

Grabbing Carmelita's paw gently, he lifted her up off the floor and they stood there for a moment, simply gazing at each other. "I thought I lost you..." his voice in a hushed tone. "I doubt Kirill will give us as good a chance for survival." The vixen shook her head.

"He almost killed you as well, Sly. If you died...I don't want to think about that right now. Come on, we're almost to the end of all this, I can feel it."

* * *

"Stone, report..." There was silence on the other end. Kirill growled in frustration as he was unable to use his surveillance cameras, confirming that the team he sent to get rid of that tortuous and rodent had failed him. The giant Siberian dog narrowed his multicolored gaze as he tried contacting...well anyone that would pick up from the engineering bay. "Derringer...what the hell is going on with the mainframe?"

Again, he was met with no reply. Mincov sighed as he walked towards the small locker bolted to the wall. Opening the drawer, the gleaming body of A U.S. 98 Bravo stared back at him. Curling the edge of his lip up to the sophisticated .338 Lupau magnum bolt action sniper, he brought it in his rough paws for a moment, getting the feel of it in his paws. He was more familiar with the Russian SVD he used during his time in the military, but this American style equipment was quite blood pumping.

Compared to this, the SVD was a sling shot; the American rifle tested one of the most effective in arctic climates. Checking the scope, he held his right eye next to the lens and switched between vision settings, settling on the thermal heat detection visual. The time his left eye had been clouded in darkness had strengthened his dominate right eye, making his sight probably the most preferable to sniping. Slinging the rifle over his back, he grinned and stuffed a few cartridges of ammunition in his large pockets as he drew on a leather harness and pulled out a side arm, checking the clip and barrel of the pistol before holstering it in the sheath strapped to the left side of his chest. Glancing to the terminal he was originally manning, he caught the faintest flicker of movement in the southern bay area, sneering to the two forms in the blurry visuals.

"Cooper..." he growled, his deep smooth voice still held onto its composed tone. "You still owe me that duel." He turned and patiently walked down the halls towards the south bay.

* * *

"Got one here," the vixen shouted, her voice bouncing off the walls of the deserted engineering bay. The limp form of a worker groaned next to her foot as she kicked him once more, rendering him unconscious yet again. Held within her grasp were the blue prints of a wire framed model of Clockwerk. Using her shock pistol, she tossed the paper into the air and charred it to cinders with the high voltage discharge of her red firearm.

"One over here," Cooper said, raising a paper clenched in his fist. He quickly tore every piece to shreds and threw it into the air like confetti, Carmelita shooting a large glob of energy through the cloud of paper fibers. "How many of these things are there?" The vixen shrugged as she heard the echoing voice of Cooper to her left.

"Not sure, but we've still got a few more places to check." Cooper perked up his head as an idea came to him.

"Wait," he said as he ran down the storage bin and came out, rolling an empty oil drum along with him. Propping the canister up, he filled it with folds of papers and parchments as well as a few oiled rags and gestured for Carmelita. She came forth. "Light this up, then we can toss in any schematics we find." She blasted the inside of the keg with lit up in brilliant light of gold and orange as a wave of heat rushed through their bodies.

"Man that feels good." The raccoon nodded as he rubbed his numbing fingers together and held his palms close to the flame for a moment before continuing their search. A high frequency _ping_ noise got his attention as the noise served as a warning to Mincov's proximity.

"Quick, hide!" Carmelita tossed in another paper into the oil drum and then sprinted down to hide behind a wall, pressing her back to the cold metal. Sly leaned out partially, his head and shoulders seemingly floating in thin air. His lower body was in fact concealed by his Egyptian ancestor's ability to remain unseen, his head only visible because he had moved it while using the technique. Kirill Mincov leapt over the railing to the scaffolding above and landed with a loud thunk onto the metal floor.

"Cooper..."he chided. "Hide and seek, is it?" Carmelita shifted uneasily as she heard him nearing her position. Seeing this, Sly knocked his cane against the wall, sending a loud noise for Kirill to investigate. The dog turned around, giving Carmelita the opportunity to switch hiding places, deliberately smacking the tip of her boot against stacks of sheet metal to send an erratic noise for Kirill to turn around to.

Cooper dashed away, meeting up with Carmelita as they followed the path to the next hologram which marked the location of the copies of Clockwerk schematics. "Found you," Mincov shouted as he broke into a light sprint towards Cooper. Sly turned around a blocked a quick strike from Kirill's fist with his cane, spinning the shaft in his arms and smacking the blunt curved hook into the dog's gut, then throwing it up to catch him in the chin. Staggering back a step, Cooper ran from the dog who quickly recovered from the strike without the slightest pain in his body as he walked forward, scanning his surroundings for the two animals.

"Bentley's kill the lights." Immediately, the area was shrouded in darkness save for the glowing fire bellowing in the oil drum. Cooper used his natural nocturnal vision to scan his surroundings as he reached for another copy, ripping it to pieces as he quickly dashed away as Kirill entered the second work bay.

"You can't hide forever!" Carmelita leveled her shock pistol to the dog and set it to its highest voltage. Depressing the trigger, the glowing blue blob of energy slammed into the dog's body where he shook violently to the high amount of voltage charging through his body. Shaking violently, the electric current around his body dissipated and he shook the static cling from his body, standing up tall and turning around to face the source of the blast. "Ah, Miss Fox. As clever as you are beautiful."

Fox gasped as Mincov's staggering stride disappeared and he seemed unfazed by the high amount of volts that spread through his body just a moment ago. She sprinted away and dove for the ground, breaking into a roll as Mincov withdrew his pistol and fired three shots, the flash lighting up the room for a fraction of a second. Cooper, sneaking from behind, drew the hook of his family heirloom around the dog's neck and tugged with all his might, flooring the canine and retreating back into the shadows. "This is becoming quite annoying," the dog chided, quickly turning around and throwing a punch at Cooper who quickly hopped back. "Hold still now!"

Carmelita quickly threw her leg into the dog's side and he grunted, kneeling down from the blow as Cooper followed up with a quick uppercut with the end of his cane, the brought the hooked end down onto the back of the dog's head. Kirill quickly drew up, throwing his arms out and bashed his opponents away, flinging Cooper and Fox back a few feet. As the two fled, Kirill had lost sight of them in the darkness and he growled. "Cowardice, how very disappointing." The master thief clutched the last piece of paper that was marked with the holographic bluish glow and Carmelita toasted it into grey ashes.

"Bentley, we've dealt with all the copies. What's your position?" They continued moving, Cooper glancing every once in awhile at the mark where Kirill was positioned.

"At the garage, we're getting ready to move out of here in the ATV." Kirill overheard the conversation as he grinned and fired his pistol out towards the sound of the raccoon.

"Kirill has us pinned down. And Clockwerk's half finished body is still in here."

"Leave that to us, my chum. We'll activate the lockdown sequence and keep this entire place shut tighter then a can of sardines. You just make sure to get out before the doors close." Mincov heard this tidbit of information and ceased firing, humming in approval as he holstered his weapon and ran for the nearest exit. Sly's ears perked up to the immediate silence."

"Bentley, Mincov's gone, light this place up and we can get outta here."

"Got it." And the lights returned, one by one to give the animals time for their eyes to adjust from the darkness. "Now that Mincov's gone, you'd better get outside as quickly as possible while I activate the code to shut this place down." Sly nodded and turned to Carmelita.

"I'll meet up with you soon, grab a coat and get outside."

"Where the hell are you going?" Cooper clenched his fist tighter around his cane as he brandished it.

"I'm going after Kirill." There wasn't time to argue as red flashes and an alarm sounded.

"_System lockdown. All bay areas will be closing in six minutes."_ There wasn't time to argue as Carmelita gave one last kiss on Cooper's lips and sprinted away. As she ran, her eyes caught the attention of an open locker; inside the metal container was a 98 Bravo sniper rifle similar to the one Kirill carried with him. Seeing as there was time left, she quickly snatched the rifle along with a long military styled coat from the adjacent locker and slung it over her body as she ran for the steadily closing door and out into the snow.

* * *

Cooper searched frantically for Kirill's signal as he broke through the screaming sirens and closing doors, sliding down against his knees as he had to limbo his way around a few metal barriers steadily inching closer to the ground. Cursing under his breath, he broke away from his intended path and ran out, sprinting down a long stretch of hall as he saw the small sliver of light as the garage door began lowering steadily to the floor. Pumping his burning legs to their limits, he lunged for the portal and hit the floor, kicking his legs out as he slid like a batter to home plate. Shutting his eyes, he felt the ting of cold metal brush against the tip of his ear as he slid into a drift of snow. Flailing his arms around to unbury himself, he sighed and leaned back as his legs were still submerged in the snow.

"That was a close one there, old boy," he sighed to himself. His moment was broken as he heard the all too familiar sound of his buzzing binoc-u-com. "Sly here..."

"Sly! Did you make it? Did Carmelita make it? Where are you?!"

"Chill, Bentley, Carmelita bolted out the second you told us to. I'm out...just barely made it though." He spoke between pants, thankful for the cold snow as it cooled his perspiring body. "I'm no too such about Kirill though..." His face grew somber as the secrets to his family were most likely locked away in that frozen steel box.

"We're out in the tundra picking up Carmelita now. We'll send you the coordinates to our location."

"Thanks, pal...Clockwerk's finally gone for good?" Bentley nodded with a grin.

"Yeah...I believe so. It'll give us one less thing to worry about and one more blow to Coal's organization." Sly chuckled as he pulled himself out of the snow drift and hugged his thick sweater against himself. The fabric of his thick insulated pants flapped nosily against his legs to the wind as it shifted. Farther away, Kirill Mincov, the Siberian husky squinted his vision down the narrow tunnel of swirling flakes of snow as he spotted a flicker of movement.

Smiling to himself, he lay down in the cushion of snow and propped up the barrel of his rifle, looking through the scope as the entire area around him grew dark, save for the silhouette of a body walking out in the frozen landscape. "I have you now, Cooper. The duel of the ages." Pulling back the bolt action of his rifle, it gave a loud mechanical _click clack_ which traveled downwind. Cooper gasped as his ears perked up to the faint sound and he quickly leaned back.

A large bullet whizzed by him as he initiated the thief reflex technique and slowed time around him to a crawl. As time shifted back to normality, he fell on his back into the snow and wiggled down into the white sheet of powder. Digging through the cold biting flakes, he reemerged behind a large drift and breathed heavily. "Sly, what's going on, we heard a gun shot."

"It's Kirill, he made it out of the complex and he's got me pinned down with sniper fire." Kirill cursed as he drew back the bolt action to his missed shot and stood up as he changed his position. His foot prints quickly covered up with snow as he lay back onto his stomach, his body completely immune to the cold as the wind began dying down and the flakes began collecting on his body, giving him a natural camouflage of a thin sheet of snow. Carmelita's face quickly moved into the binoc-u-com's view.

"I'm coming out there. I'll try and help you find him with my new toy."

"Carmelita-

But his shot went unheeded as she left. Bentley entered the camera's view once more. "Carmelita of all people stole on of their rifles and she'll be out there trying to spot Kirill for you. Just stay out of his sights and do whatever you can to stay alive while we move to your position." Sly growled and nodded as he stored his communication device and glanced over the snow bank, quickly ducking down as a section of the powdery mound erupted from another shot slamming into it. He cringed to the cold as he calculated a plan of action.

Grabbing his hat, he cursed under his breath as the still warm fabric from his head was tossed to his right. Kirill's sights immediately landed on the blob of light, finding it to not be Cooper as he spied the sprinting body running off to the opposite direction where the hat was thrown. Another loud blam echoed through the area as a shot smacked right next to Cooper's feet as he jumped and dove into the snow yet again. Emerging from the ocean of powder, his sight glanced to the slight depression in the snow as he noticed footprints beginning to disappear into the endless expanse of white. He noted the size as far too large to be his or Carmelita's feet and his mood brightened slightly to the notion that he might be able to track Mincov for a moment at least.

* * *

Carmelita panted in the cold air as she watched; far away a very tiny Cooper dodging fire and burying into the snow, only for his head to pop out of the freezing ground a few feet away from where he dove in. Her ears shot up to the air splitting crack of the rifle's shots and she quickly grounded herself as she pressed the rifle's scope to her right eye. She immediately spied Cooper dodging another shot that exploded into a puff of snow by his feet. "Hold on, ringtail...I'm watching over you."

* * *

Another ear splitting crack and suddenly, a piece of cloth was torn from Cooper's shoulder. Grunting to the sting, he toppled onto the floor of snow as he clutched his grazed shoulder. Quickly getting up, he sprinted behind another snow drift and inspected his shoulder. A small splotch of blood blotted the tips of his gloved fingers and he hissed. "Damn, he's good. Has knowledge of the area, a rifle designed for cold territories, natural immunities to the cold, and on top of all that, he's the friggin' 'father of modern day sniping.' Man," he chuckled. "I'm royally screwed."

His eyes shifted to a sudden flicker of movement and he quickly melted away with Slytankhamen's disappearing act. He watched with sharp eyes as Kirill's large frame buried himself into the snow and he scanned the area for Cooper. Looked as if the raccoon's luck had come back, but he dared not move.

* * *

Carmelita hissed as she saw Cooper fall to the ground, relieved to see him pick himself back up and run for the snow drift, then, disappeared from sight. Switching to the thermal sight, she still saw a vague outline of him. He didn't move, yet his head quickly darted to the left as he stared intensely at something. A wavering outline caught her attention as it buried itself in the snow. "Kirill," she sneered. "Using a heat insulating suit under his military garb. Clever."

Though she was trained in sharp shooting in the academy, she had never actually shot someone from a rooftop or through a window. She remembered though about being patient until she was absolutely sure her target was in her sights. So she waited, as did the husky, waiting to fire off their shot. Her mind rewound to how Cooper had wanted so desperately to seek this man out for information. This just made her assignment all the more difficult.

Not only would she have to shoot him, but try to make sure the shot was disarming, not fatal.

* * *

Cooper's chest heaved, the field of his invisibility technique beginning to waver as he grew tired and less focused. The flickering cloaking field caused Kirill's eyes to shift to the slight distortion of shadows to his immediate right and he quickly jerked the barrel of his rifle to the spot and fired. Cooper jumped away as the snow behind him blew into a plume of white. Kirill stood up and pointed the rifle to Cooper who watched that he was within his sights. Another series of loud cracks and Cooper halted, shutting his eyes.

Slowly opening his eyes, he immediately glanced over his body and saw that he was still alive. Glancing up to where Kirill once stood, the dog was on the floor, cradling the bloody stump of meat where his right paw used to be connected to. Another crack and his right thigh exploded in a brilliant crimson; his main artery was surely severed as the .380 magnum slug tore a fist-sized hole through the dog's leg. Despite the fact that Mincov could feel no pain, he wouldn't be going anywhere quickly. "What in the...?" His curiosity was answered as he saw another figure off into the distance sliding down a large mountain of snow. "Carmelita..." he sighed into the now blowing breeze.

He then turned to Mincov and lifted him up by the collar of his coat, kneeling down slightly. "Now...what do you know about the Cooper family line?" The dog chuckled weakly as his body temperature began to drop from losing blood. "Tell me!"

"More than you would think...little Sly Cooper. Coal...he is the cloak and dagger behind it all. The true bane of Cooper existence throughout the years." Cooper narrowed his brows and shook the dog's wavering attention.

"What are you saying? Who is Coal? What are his connections to my family and to Clockwerk?!" His shouted caused the husky's flickering eyes to open and he looked towards the face above his.

"He is closer to you than you know...your paths weave...a tangled web...of fate. Fate's always been that way...thinking it's just a straight line, like a flowing river. But it's a forest...one with deep shadows, and sharp turns."

"What the hell are you saying?! Tell me what I want to know!"

"Throughout the years...the house of Cooper was...at risk of being wiped from the gene pool for all time by the manic drive of...the metal bird of prey, Clockwerk. For centuries...they thought it was the avian that was their true enemy...their rival throughout history." Cooper's chest heaved in anticipation as his heart throbbed. "But...in the beginning...Clockwerk was the puppet...following the pulling strings of another more sinister creature...of unnatural origins.

"As long as there has been Clockwerk...so too has there been a group watching over the bird's actives, the leader of this organization directing the bird until it went rouge and only saw killing the last of your kind it's only purpose."

"Are you saying...?" Kirill nodded.

"The current leader of their organization...is Coal. From a long line, as ancient as the Cooper name and Egyptian pyramids themselves. Directing the bird...they wanted to change the world in their own vision of heaven on Earth...their goal to be the greatest empire in the world's existence...giving safe haven for everyone from killing, war, disease, hunger...until the bird only saw revenge...as it's true purpose." Cooper's face drew and expression of disbelief. For so long, the truth of the Cooper's true assailants was finally revealed.

Kirill began chuckling weakly. "Scared, boy...? You should be...demons hunt for you..." The crunching of boot soles against snow caught their attention as Carmelita stood watching the scene unfold. Cooper glanced to her and then back to Mincov.

"All this time...what is Coal planning Clockwerk for? Is it to destroy me and to reshape this world once more?" Kirill nodded.

"But...not as originally indented thousands of years ago. Coal's plans for Clockwerk are different. He was...using him...his highly durable metal body...as a submersible to dive into the ocean's depths...and dredge the ocean for the remains of the Cooper Vault and Kane Island. With secrets placed by your very forefathers... and unlimited wealth stored inside its golden walls...Coal would remake the world. And you're going after this man...god have mercy on you..."

"What secrets? What is hiding in that vault? What did my ancestors hide from Coal's organization?!" Kirill's laughter was like rolling laughter as his smile faded from his lips and his eyes dimmed, slowly closing his lids as he ceased breathing. "Mincov!"

Sly shook the dog's collar, but he remained motionless. The raccoon dropped the lifeless body onto the snow and simply knelt there in the cold, staring down at the snow that was now stained a deep dark red from the pool collecting around Mincov's body. Carmelita walked towards him and knelt beside him, placing a paw on his shoulder. The deep rumbling laughter of Kirill Mincov still echoed in their ears and through the swirling, howling winds of the frozen wasteland.


	26. Just Another Day

**Chapter 26**

**Just another day**

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_Author's note: Man, that was quicker than I expected. Normally takes me weeks when I had the chapter finished in a single sitting. Of course I have IgnorantOne to thank for that. Giving me enough ideas, I typed this thing out in less than an hour. Most if not all the entire section of Scarlet getting her new part time job is an example of his contribution. If you really enjoy it, make sure to mention it in your reviews and know how much you appreciate his colaboration to this story. Well, I'm off to go to sleep now, bye bye._

_Tex_

_P.S. If you're confused on how to pronounce Madam Francois's name, it's pronounced (Fran-Swas) Always here for you, my fellow readers and writers.  
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**W**alking down the paved sidewalks of downtown Paris, Constable Booker and Scarlet Crimson strode past the occasional fellow street walker until halting in front of an old country store. The shop was small and rather old fashioned, but it was quite elegant, an attractive air about it gave it an inviting aura. "This is the place?" Scarlet questioned, turning to Booker. The feline nodded and held the door open for her, the jingling of bells strung up by the door signaled the owner of the store that they had customers.

A large male wolf lifted his head from the wooden cabinets and tables he was polishing and came up towards them. Dorian recognized him to be the wolf that lived in the same apartment building as Carmelita's, the complex a few blocks away from the shop.

"May I help either of you?" His paws were folded behind his back, the scent of lemon wafted off him as his fingers were stained with the scented oils of the wood polish. Dorian greeted him.

"Yes, is Madam Francois in? We'd like to speak with her about a job position." He glanced up at the light fixtures on the ceiling as he placed a paw to his chin.

"She's probably in the back room; I'll be just a minute." He disappeared through the hallway that opened up on the left side of the front counter and reappeared with a strikingly attractive female snow rabbit. She equaled the blazing red vixen's beauty to the spotted feline's left if not almost overcame it, her brilliant white fur glowing with an ethereal light that shown of sophistication and wisdom.

"Now Aldric, I already told you. You're off for the rest of the day, no arguing with me."

"But Madam Francois, I insist. Let me stay for the full day, I'd feel horrible just walking out and leaving you to the store alone." She patted the side of his face and shooed him away.

"Sweetie, please. I'll be fine. Now go, you're still young, enjoy that youth." He bowed politely and they parted ways as he grabbed his coat from the hook by the door and departed. She shook her head. "Such a sweet boy," she said as she turned towards the remaining animals in the room.

"Dorian! My goodness," she patted her chest and brushing her fingers through her hair a moment as she sauntered up to the feline. "So good to see you again, darling. You've gotten taller! I haven't seen you in ages, you never stop by. What's with that now?" She embraced him tightly as Booker stumbled slightly to her quickly wrapping herself around him.

"Madam Francois, good to see you again too." She then turned from the ocelot towards the red vixen. Her eyes quickly lit up to the beautiful young woman.

"And who is this? I'm afraid we've never met." She held out a paw which Scarlet took and shook with dainty gracefulness. "Madam Angele Francois, a pleasure to meet you."

"Scarlet Crimson, the pleasure is mine, Madam."

"Beautiful, and polite. Dorian, why have you never told me of this woman? She's an absolute gem of a lady. The world could use more well mannered young people." The cat rubbed the back of his head.

"She...just arrived in the city, a friend of my cousin's. Showing her around to get her settled into her new house while I have a few others visiting from out of town."

"Well I must say," the bunny said, scanning the woman's appearance. "She's quite the looker; you'd best keep this one close, Mr. Dorian." Scarlet blushed.

"Madam, please. You're too kind." Dorian smiled, he knew Madam would instantly warm up to Scarlet.

"Ahem, Madam Francois-

"Please, Dorian. Angele."

"Angele," he restated. "We've come here because Scarlet is interested in working in this shop with you. I recommended this place for her and she took to the idea instantly." Madam Francois clapped her paws together.

"Such a sweet man you are, Dorian. Helping dear little Scarlet get settled into the big city." She then leaned closer towards Scarlet. "Keep a tight hold on this one, sweet pea. He's quite the attractive one."

"Madam..."

"Oh hush now. My dear boy...if I were a woman ten years younger..." Dorian smiled and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Madam...if I didn't know you're age I'd say that you _were_ a woman ten years younger...and then...who knows what could happen." Scarlet looked to the rabbit in puzzlement. The rabbit moved her dazzling gaze towards the vixen and smirked with confidence.

"Believe it or not, love. But I was one of the top runway models and actresses in the late 1960s." The vixen's emerald eyes lit up in surprise.

"You're...?"

"Fifty years and still able to make men's jaws drop to the floor," she laughed. "But you, I'm sure you would know exactly what I'm talking about." Scarlet smiled to the compliment. "Well, Dorian, you should be ashamed of not telling me about this new woman of yours. She's a delight."

"Who, me? With her? Oh we aren't together." The rabbit frowned slightly, but then her expression lightened up considerably.

"Ah, a shame. That means you're available then, eh Mr. Dorian?" The ocelot looked to the ground for a moment before glancing back up.

"Well...in a sense yes. But I'm still thinking of...why do I need to explain this to you anyway?" Scarlet winced as the ocelot was referencing about Carmelita.

"Because there is an empty back room...and just enough room for two..." She giggled again and winked. Dorian blushed furiously and shook his head free of any thoughts accumulating.

"You're old enough to be my mother, Madam."

"Maybe so...but I look good and I can do things you're mother probably wouldn't dream of. Besides," the older woman smiled. "There are something's in life that just doesn't change after fifty years. I remember you staring at me for a _long_ time when you worked here...and that was before I told you how old I was. Age is just a number, dearie." Dorian shuddered.

"Please don't call me dearie, Madam...it reminds me of my grandma. No offense."

"Oh. I'm quite sorry, Dorian." Scarlet clutched Dorian's collar and pulled him down to come within whispering distance.

"C'mon you fool, she's a regular bombshell and you're chickening out. Your precious Carmelita isn't putting out any time soon. Get it where you can, Constable." The female rabbit sighed and leaned forward, a devil's grin sliding on her face as she reached into her back pocket and produced a scandalous photo of herself nearly twenty years back. She's almost naked, but all of the good bits are concealed thanks to the thick rug she was lying on.

"You see all of this...it hasn't changed since this photo was taken..." The rabbit leaned forward a little more, "You might as well give in boy. I'll get you one way or another. Besides, you'll find that I can be _very _accommodating and comforting..."

"As much as I'd like to find that out...um...Scarlet! Shouldn't you be...applying for a job here?"

"She's already hired. And her first order of business..." She turns to Scarlet and handed her a key, "Go lock the front door would you? If you can do that, I'll let you watch. And then you can truly see if he's worth your time or not." Dorian slumped forward; knocking his chest into the side of the counter as the air stored in his lungs came rushing out.

"What?!" Dorian breathed out. The lapin winced.

"Save the screaming for the backroom, Dorian. Scarlet." Dorian glanced to the vixen for assistance.

"You're not really going through with this, are you?" Scarlet shrugged.

"If it's what my new boss wants..."

"Besides, Scarlet called ahead of time...she says you're being grouchy and jumpy. Maybe this will help you relax." The rabbit stepped up to Dorian, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her hips against his, a large grin on her face. Dorian leered towards Scarlet as she locked the front door.

"You set me up for this didn't you?"

"Well...you seemed like you needed to relax, and Madam Francois said you always looked so happy when you were working here. And it's your fault anyway for leaving the phone number out in plain sight for me to pick up."

"And maybe I can get you come back to work for me...with a little extra incentive..." The lapin smiled and grabbed Dorian's arm and placed it on her firm rump. Then a quick flash, and Scarlet was holding a camera. "Now, that was just for insurance purposes. I'll expect you to pay your 128 euro tab you've kept here....if you don't pay, those photos will find themselves at your police station." The lapin now returned her attention back to Dorian as she pressed her breasts against Dorian's chest.

"Now....where were we..." Dorian looked around the room frantically, unsure just what was happening and afraid of what was about to transpire. Looking down at the snowy white face of the elderly lapin along with the two mounds of fur flushed against his chest, he craned his long neck back as far as he could while trying to make sense of the situation.

"Blackmailing me now? God, what did I do to deserve this?"

"128 euros. And because you're just so adorable." Francois smiled, leaning forward to nuzzle his neck as her leg wrapped around his.

"Alright, alright, 128 euros." He tried moving his paws but found them bound by her grasp.

"Oh, I'll just look for it myself, no need, dearie." She smiled as she slowly eases her paws into the back pockets of his pants, sending a jolt of panic up the ocelot's spine as his short tail went ridged as it began puffing out. He felt her warm palm give a firm squeeze.

"Mhmm...very firm." She said with a hint of smugness, "Of course, this isn't what I'm after..." She pulls out his wallet and a fifty euro bill emerged, placing it on the counter. "I'll collect the rest later. Scarlet, come over here...I'm sure he'd be much more to your liking." Scarlet's entire face matched her blazing red complexion as she retained what laughter she could by covering her mouth with a balled fist. Her ears perked up to the sound of her name.

"Me, Madam?"

"I don't see anyone else here, vixen." The snowy furred herbivore giggled. "Come here." The female fox nodded.

"Yes Madam Francois," and she sauntered over to the pair, standing by waiting to be instructed by her new employer who she instantly began to adore. Francois pulled back a little and grabbed Scarlet's paw, placing it on Dorian's belly.

"Feel that? He's a firm boy. And here." She moved the vixen's paw up to Dorian's back and shoulders, "And here", to his pectorals. "Definitely here..." to Dorian's ass, this made the ocelot start a little bit, yet remaining still as his ego boosted slightly to two gorgeous women admiring over his physique... Aside from his objecting demeanor, he was enjoying the attention. Then the rabbit's grin widened and she giggled as she still had her hips pressed against Dorian's. "Oh my...he's getting firm here too..." Dorian coughed and cleared his throat.

"A-alright, you two have had your fun. Can I go now? I doubt this is what you pay your employees for doing all day. I need to get back, and Scarlet needs to get to work. I'm sure you've both got a lot on your plate, so if I could just..."

"Really? Look around, lover boy." The rabbit chuckled, pulling back just a little bit to fool around with his zipper, the bulge at the front of his pants obvious. "Ain't no one here but you...me...and little miss vixen here."

"Ah jeeze," he sighed as he looked down, watching the nimble white fingers fidgeting with his pant's front. "Look, I really, _really _should be going now, please!" He glanced to Scarlet for a way out, seeing her amused expression on her face which caused him to sigh with no hope in sight.

"Yes. You really should get going." She pulled back, and then pointed behind the counter. "To the back room that is." Dorian shut his eyes in defeat.

"There's no getting by this is there?"

"Nope," she closed her eyes and shook her head, her nose brushing against his with every sway of her head. "Of course...is this really so bad when you think about it?" He gave a thin frown and placed his paws onto her wrists.

"Madam...please. I know I'd be passing up an amazing offer, and I'm sure I'll be kicking myself for saying no...but I don't think this would be the best thing for me right now." Her paws slid off as she pulled the zipper of his pants back up. She nodded in approval with a smile.

"Now that's a man for you. Taking charge of the situation and staying loyal to that other skirt you were chasing. Carmelita I think her name was?" He grinned as he blushed.

"You could say that. And thanks."

"Of course the offer still stands, love." She gave a devious smirk and a wink of her eye. Dorian returned with his own smirk.

"Who knows, maybe you'll stumble on me while I'm in a good mood one of these days."

"Or maybe I'll just pay a visit to your quaint little home and jump you there." The ocelot sucked in a breath and held it within his chest for a moment.

"Be hard finding any place quiet in his little home these days." Scarlet piped in as Dorian didn't seem like he would respond anytime soon. "With all the people staying at his house for the season, there won't be much room for any 'quiet time'. It's been years since they've come up and with me dropping in and adding all the more seats to the table in that already small house. But I'm sure Dorian would want to have some fun of his own after they're all gone, hmm?" Dorian jumped from Scarlet's elbow nudging into the side of his ribcage. Dorian's features softened as he took a more somber tone.

"Well...it's complicated...I'm not too sure what to think at the moment. I think...it would be better to wait on things like that for now...see how things turn out."

"Well...Dorian," Scarlet flashed her green eyes. "I guess you should be going now, hmm? You were so anxious to be leaving just a few moments ago; I'd expect it to be very urgent

if it would cause you to want to leave so badly."

"Huh? Oh, right. I probably should be going; hopefully I'll still have a house to come back to after leaving all our...friends there without me there. Madam, it was...a pleasure seeing you again."

"Mhmm...you too, sweetheart." Before the ocelot left however, he quickly grabbed one of Madam Francois' wrists and pulled her towards him, planting a fiery kiss upon her lips, causing her eyes to close as she wrapped a paw around his neck. Pulling away with an audible _smack_ of their lips, the rabbit placed a paw on her chest as Dorian's cheeks burned.

"Hope it made up for not dropping by." Her eyes fluttered and grinned seductively to him.

"Oh honey...if only you moved like that just a few minutes ago. Be sure to drop by more often." He nodded and walked out the door. As he walked down the street, he sighed to himself, folding his arms back as he placed both palms behind his head.

"Just another day for you, Dorian." Scarlet crossed her arms and lowered her chin as her brows furrowed slightly.

"Well now..." Francois smiled as she watched Dorian leave. "Seems like someone here has developed a Lottia-complex." Scarlet glanced at Dorian's departing form as she shifted her eyes back to her boss.

"Excuse me, Madam Francois?" She asked.

"I was the same way back when I was your age. I caught the attention of every man in the room when I walked in..." She sighed. "I could have any man I wanted...any man that struck my fancy. Whether I was feeling like a canine, or feline..._any_ man. None refused. Until a certain little hussy named Lottia Lapia strutted her prissy little self onto the center stage."

"It's just...as if every man in this damn country is chasing after Carmelita. She's all I hear about these days. I don't know, perhaps I'm acting too childish."

"Well chances are that every man in the country _is_ chasing after her. I'm sure she is acting like the one man woman type, am I right?" Scarlet nodded.

"She is infatuated with someone else for, from the look of things, a long period of time. Funny how she breaks so many men's hearts without her even trying to. And when Dorian just goes on and on about her...I can't help but feel..."

"Unappreciated? Yes. That's how it goes. But it seems as if he's a little more than just friends with Carmelita, doesn't it? You can tell by how he talks about her...it's more than just an infatuation. I'm sure something happened between them...or else he wouldn't peruse her as hard as he does."

"But I feel sorry for him...how blinded he is by it all. And underappreciated? Well, what girl doesn't like being the center of attention at times? It's just second nature. But he's really a nice man after getting to finally know him...I would...hate to see him get hurt when he finds Carmelita doesn't love him back."

"Well then...it will be hard for him to accept the fact that he might not get chosen. Or he will be overjoyed by in fact he does get chosen. It can go either way. Only time will tell...as a matter of fact, where is that Spanish vixen anyways? Last I saw her she was with Dorian a couple months back." Scarlet bit her lip to the sour memories.

"She's...vacationing. Dorian told me she's quite the work-aholic so she took some time to herself. Chief's advice believe it or not."

* * *

"Hmm," Indigo Blue muttered as his back was leaned up against the side of a building. A smoldering cigarette hung from his lips as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. A few blocks across from his position on the street, a friendly collaboration was taking place. A group of rats were greeting one another; an intricate series of handshakes took place as they entered the side door of their grungy building. Glancing at his wrist watch, he growled low from deep within his throat to himself.

"Should be about time now," he said. The black sport coat that was draped over his shoulders swung behind him like a short dark cloak as the soles of his wingtips crunched against gravely concrete. He grimaced to the notion of damaging the exquisite footwear's underside, and even more to the thought that he would have to conserve his currency from now on since the vast reserves of sums accumulated over the years of his deadly career was now locked out from him, otherwise he would simply buy another pair without a second thought. Stepping onto the other side of the street, he felt the hard steel of his revolvers within the sleeves of his blue turtleneck sweater and the still body of the silenced nine millimeter stuffed into the holster strapped behind his back. Reaching one paw into his pocket, he knocked on the door, his brows rising slightly to find the door swung open freely.

"The imbeciles forgot to lock the door?" He chuckled to himself, pulling his paw from his pocket and withdrawing his firearm. As he entered, the sights of his gun swept across the barren rooms, the area holding a deathly quiet in the air. He slowly walked through; placing one foot in front of the other as he stepped with his left shoulder pointed facing forward, the elongated barrel of his pistol pointed upwards. His glowing blue eyes quickly fell upon a limp form spread across the floor.

Blue's psychological capacity was put to the test by witnessing the macabre scene. He grimaced to the scent of death, the sour, vinegar like smell that stung the nostrils as it crept through one's spine. Traveling deeper into darkness, each room seemed to grow only worse, blood painted the walls as bullet holes riddled what windows there were, light seeping into the rooms to shed light on the situation. Men, rats, dogs, felines, reptiles, all were riddled with holes and doubled over one another as others were simply ripped apart, slashed to pieces. Long oozing slits spread across their throats as their dim eyes stared up lifelessly at Blue.

His ears twitched to a foreign sound whispered through thick walls and doors as he dropped the cigarette from his mouth and ground it into the floor. "Please, man. You can't do me like this. It ain't natural! Who sent you? Whoever they are, I can pay you double; triple the price if you deal with them! I'm begging you, man, please!"

Blue turned the knob of the door and slowly pushed it open, peering through the creak of the doorway just in time to catch the grisly sight of the pleading drug smuggler's execution. A dark figure held him in a headlock as he pulled on the dog's head, extending his neck out for the dark furred candid. With a quick, fluid motion, the flash of gleaming steel caught Blue's eyes as a straight edge razor flicked out from the handle and the black animal dragged the edged blade across the squirming canine's white neck. The dog twitched and squirmed as the icy touch of the blade bit into his skin and sliced across his neck, warm crimson flooded into his throat. He gagged on his own blood as red dribbled down his neck, staining his entire front in a deep red.

"Heartless...mother...fu-

And the dog slumped onto the floor in silence, unable to utter his last syllable to his killer. Wiping the blade off with a cloth he produced from the front pocket of his coat, the dark animal flipped the blade back into its handle and placed it back into his pocket. His ears twitched and he quickly swung around, the silenced pistol appearing in his paws as he pointed to Indigo. The malamute followed suit with mimicked precision and swiftness. The assassin, a fox with sleek, midnight black fur narrowed his hollow eyes to the dog and holstered his weapon.

Indigo lowered his firearm and studied the animal with a killer's honed sight, analyzing every inch of the man. "You killed my targets," Blue spoke. The fox glanced to the body on the floor wading in a pool of ruby liquid and then back to the white and black furred dog with intense ice blue eyes.

"They were part of my assignment," he said, a voice that matched his dark appearance. "You however are not, so step aside and you won't be harmed." Blue smirked, placing a paw casually into his pocket to which the fox stiffened and held up his pistol again, engaging the red laser sight. The red dot danced around the dog's pocket as Blue slowly pulled out a box of cigarettes and lit one, flicking open the silver lighter and flicking the ignition switch to produce a flame.

"Your form, while effective, lacks finesse, my friend. Always the one to play into the stereotype of a dark, seething being that kills in the most inhumane ways, how droll." The fox smirked and holstered his gun once more, stepping past the dog.

"Do not follow, or I'll kill you." Blue blew a thick grey fog into the fox's direction and smiled.

"Likewise. But you still killed my targets; I require compensation to this little twist of fate." The fox scoffed at this, waving the smoke away with a paw.

"I killed them; I will get paid for my services. Go back to your employer and claim you killed them. You'll get your money, I'll get mine, and we don't have to worry about any inconveniences." Blue's brows rose in amusement as he watched the dark vulpine depart.

"Hmm..." he said, turning to the assortment of bloody swaths that were once living beings. "As if one Coal in this world was too much..." He looked around once more and mulled over the situation he was presented. "To hell with it," he stated as he plucked the cigarette from his lips and dropped it into the gaping mouth of a deceased gecko.

"Just another day for you, Indigo old boy."

* * *

Paris International, as busy as ever. People by the hundreds shuffled about, waiting in seats for their planes or exiting the tunnels of their terminals, embracing loved ones they left behind and scurrying to baggage claim. A familiar raccoon, dressed in 'inconspicuous' clothing strode along with another assortment of animals at his side. Scanning the vicinity that opened up to him, he glanced to his friends and their odd choices of clothing. Bentley was dressed looking much like the native population of the cold country they just departed from, wearing a woolly ushanka with the ear flaps pulled up and a leather bomber jacket, coupled with a thick black beard and mustache.

Murray was dressed comically as a small boy, a rainbow colored propeller cap sat atop his head and a small red and white horizontal striped shirt hugged his upper body. Penelope took a little more subtle approach, dressed in a dark red business suit with large oval sunglasses over her eyes. Carmelita, to her immediate disliking, wore a bell shaped cloche hat and a matching sun dress. "I look like I stepped out of the roaring twenties. I'm not a flapper, turtle!" She snapped towards the shelled reptile that had picked out her disguise.

"Well, it is very fetching on you, Miss Fox." He said in his defense. Cooper chuckled as he straightened the collar of his shirt and the monocle placed over his left eye.

"You should have listened to me, Bentley. She would have liked the high school cheerleader outfit better." He held his breath in as he felt a sharp pain sting at his foot, looking down to see the pointed tip of Carmelita's heels digging into the top of his shoe.

"Can we _please_ just get out of here?" Cooper nodded to the vixen and they continued on their way to baggage claim.

"So good to be home," Murray stretched his arms to the sky in relief. "And with Clockwerk deep-sixed, things could get back to normal round here." Bentley shook his head.

"Although I'm glad to be back and with Clockwerk out of commission, this whole ordeal is far from over. We still have Coal to deal with and put a stop to his operations." Sly winced to the mention of Coal Black as he clenched and unclenched his fist for what had to be the hundredth time since they were on the plane. Carmelita noticed his growing anxiety since departing from Siberia. He hadn't gotten any sleep when they checked into a hotel in Moscow last night, he would always be staring out the window, or pacing, or staring off into space mulling over his thoughts.

Carmelita tore off the cloche from her head and tossed the abomination she considered as headwear into her bag, weaving her paws through her dark curls and placed a paw to Cooper's shoulder. His face in some areas was still covered with small bandages from his injuries with Kirill. He looked to her as they walked, smiling somberly until returning to his thoughts. The van was waiting patiently for them as Murray eagerly climbed inside, tightening his grip on the steering wheel, discarding the toddler's cap into the back. "I miss the ATV already," Penelope stated, climbing into the back of the van with Bentley and his computer equipment, growing used to the spacious interior of the armored transport and the comfortable bunk situated next to the heater system.

"Next time we go on another arctic expedition, we'll stay longer. Hopefully it will be a more enjoyable experience than dodging mines and gunfire." Bentley placed a hand on her back as he leaned next to him, placing an arm around him as her paw rested on his shoulder.

"Make a left here, Murray," Carmelita stated. The pink hippopotamus quirked a brow to the sudden shift in direction.

"How come?"

"Dorian's Mustang is still in storage. I need to go get it back to him." The hippo looked to Bentley who nodded and Murray quickly turned the wheel, bolting down the street. "Mind the speed limit, you lunatic!" Stopping the van in front of the vehicle storage garage, the wheels rubbed against the street as they screamed to Murray's heavy foot slamming on the break pedal.

Everyone in the van flung forward to the still remaining inertia escaping from their bodies. "I'd like to see a cab try and match that." Carmelita grumbled as she climbed out of the van.

"I should write you up for speeding right now, bucko." The hippo gave a goofy smirk as he rested his forearm out of the open driver side window.

"Then why don't ya?" The fox gave a light grin and shook her head.

"Maybe another time. C'mon, Sly," she said as she walked towards the garage. He grabbed Carmelita's bag along with his own and jogged to catch up to the vixen.

"We'll contact you guys for our next plan of action. Right now, let's just lay low for awhile till things cool down."

"No complaints from me here bud," Murray shouted back. "Could use some time for some decent food round here."

"Are you saying the rations I gave you on the ATV weren't good enough?" Bentley snapped, stretching his neck up high in anonymity.

"Those freeze dried bricks tasted like cardboard."

"Those rations are a well balanced, nutritious source of food. It's universal and you say it tastes like cardboard!?"

"It does!" The argument continued as they sped off, leaving the two animals to retrieve the red Ford muscle car from its storage unit. The car roared to life as Cooper climbed in, shutting the door as he tossed their luggage behind their seats.

"I can see why Dorian really likes driving this thing," Carmelita mused, going through her bag to redress into her usual attire of a blue halter top and her brown leather jacket. She glared to Cooper who watched her as she sat in the parked car in nothing but her undergarments until pulling on her pants and top. "You can really feel the power behind it."

"Don't tell me you're the next speed demon beside Murray," he chuckled as he pulled off his shirt, reaching behind for his bags. Pulling out his blue sweater, he slipped a white undershirt on and then the thick cobalt fabric over himself. Placing the blue cap back onto his head, he kept the monocle on his eye and waggled his eyebrows, smirking to his appearance in the flip down mirror "What do you think? Keep the monocle? Or ditch it?"

Carmelita gave a sidelong glance to the raccoon and rolled her eyes. "You look like a complete goofball with that thing on your face."

"I dunno, I kinda like it. Must be the inner Thaddeus Winslow Cooper in me." He chuckled to the refined gentleman thief he read about in his tome of master thievery. Carmelita shook her head.

"God, I wonder if _all _your ancestors were like you. One Sly Cooper is more than enough I can handle." He laughed, unclipping the monocle's string from his ear as he rolled it up and placed it into his holster.

"Well," Cooper said, raising a paw as he waved it around as he spoke. "My dad was a pretty easy going guy from my memories as a kid. He always loved telling me stories while I sat on his knee."

The vixen stopped to an old home in the shady section of the city, more out and away from all the eyes of the more congested areas of Paris. "I'll drop the car off to Dorian and then come pick you up later."

"No, wait," Cooper said. "I want to meet him." Her brows quirked up in surprise.

"You're not serious, are you?" He shrugged.

"I'll have to eventually, right? Might as well be on my terms of appearing to him instead of unexpectedly. Besides, you said so yourself when you got back you wanted to take a nice hot shower. Why not use mine? Let's give ourselves some time to relax while the gang is out, my treat."

She sighed and gave a wane smile, unbuckling her belt and climbing out of the car. Entering the dark house, Cooper flicked the switches to a few lights and illuminated the rooms of his home. "Mi casa es su casa," he stated, opening his arms up and bowing low as if to present some enormous mansion where in fact it was a simple, dark home. She rolled her eyes to his joking manner and headed upstairs. He followed suit as a puppy-dog would follow its master.

"So, you'll take the first shower I'm guessing." He pointed a finger to her as he dropped their bags and went into the bathroom to pull out a few fresh towels. As he pulled out the wooly sheets, he looked up from the low cabinet to the fox standing above him, her arms folded under her bosom as she gazed down at him. He smiled in puzzlement as he stood up. In a sudden uncharacteristic motion, she threw her arms around him and planted an intense kiss upon his lips.

Dropping the towels to the floor, he drew his arms around her and tilted his head as they shoved their muzzles deeper into each other. Cooper growled low within his throat to the sensation of her passionate kiss as she moaned against his lips. Placing a paw to his chest, she slowly pulled away, letting his bottom lip free from hers as she suckled it. His eyes were heavily lidded as his brown irises gazed into hers. Licking her lips, they tingled to the sweetness that still clung to them as she brushed the side of her muzzle against his.

"I...must have done something good just now." He chuckled, only for his words to be stifled by Carmelita pushing his face into hers once more. Withdrawing again, she opened her eyes and spoke quietly, drawing in a breath and letting it pass from her lips.

"We nearly saw each other die back in Russia. Ring...Sly, I realized just how vulnerable you really are. The amazing things you do, I used to think you were impervious to something as trivial as death. Then when I saw Kirill nearly beat you to death and with every shot he fired from his rifle...I realized that you're still just as mortal as us all, any one of those shots could have taken you from me. It made me question my own mortality.

"Of course, getting shot in the chest made me think a bit more on the subject that we could have died at any moment during that entire time in the Siberian complex." Cooper nuzzled her neck with the cold tip of his nose and spoke into her soft neck fur.

"When I thought you were shot...everything stopped. It was as if my world was shattered into pieces. I kept telling myself there was no way that could have happened, not to me, not to you. The stories on the news of people being killed by drunken drivers or gang shootouts...I always thought those threats were so far away from either of us. Then I realized that we're always smack dab in the middle of situations twice as dangerous.

"And I see just how easily one of those bodies on the floor could end up being yours. If you died...that would be the end for both of us. There would be no moving on, no forgetting all the bad times and only remembering the good. I would be dead as well." She cupped the side of his face and brought him into a gentler kiss, caressing his cheek as he leaned forward more, causing her to lean back as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Pulling away, she looked up at him and he smiled. Leaning her back up to stand straight, he withdrew himself from her and headed for the door, giving her her privacy. "Sly," she said as he headed for the door. Cooper turned around and looked to her, waiting for her to respond.

"Yeah, Carmelita?" She licked her lips in apprehension as she walked up to him and placed her paws onto his shoulders. Guiding him away from the door, she closed it and locked it behind her. His heart began racing within his chest along with hers.

"I almost lost you," she whispered. "Now that we finally have time to catch our breath, I want to spend what time we have together before we start dodging bullets again."

"Carmelita?"

"Take off your cloths, Cooper. You're getting in that shower with me." He grinned as he reached down to pull off his sweater, reaching up and pulling the fabric up, over his face and off his arms. Carmelita's paws followed the route of the sweater, caressing his toned bare midsection as she disrobed, pressing herself to him and sharing another kiss as the fox reached into the shower and turned the nozzle on. Holding the curtain open for her, Cooper checked the temperature of the water with an outstretched paw and let her enter before him.

Entrenched in the wet chamber as steam bellowed around them, Cooper wrapped his arms around Carmelita's waist, grinning. "Whatever happened to seeing you naked when we're married?" She responded by grabbing one of the scrubbing pads off the shower rack and dotting his nose with a glob of bubbly suds.

"So I feel a little inclined to share a more intimate part of myself with you. I've known you long enough I think. Don't get any funny ideas though, ringtail." She craned her neck back as he buried his muzzle into her neck fur, suckling and kissing her sensitive flesh as she ran the scrubber up and down his back. "Some things can wait till marriage. Consider this...a sample of things to come." He nodded against her neck.

"I won't push things too far...at least not yet." She smiled as she kneaded his shoulder muscles, working the sudsy mass of bubbles and soap into the fur that covered his shoulders and back. Feeling his roaming paws on her, she cooed in satisfaction as her sopping wet brush coiled around his waist.

"Just another day of you trying to get me to fall for you, Cooper." He mumbled something into her chest just above her heaving bosom as he ran his tongue along the area that contained her beating heart, up to her neck. "And god is it working."

* * *

"He cleared out the entire place?" Blue nodded, sipping the tea from the steaming cup and placing it on a coaster.

"Mmm, Tom this tea is magnificent. Yes," he continued licking his lips as he took another sip of the herb filled water. "A black fox cleared out the entire place all on his own, without me even knowing he was there. It was surreal." Scarlet leaned forward with interest. Tom grinned.

"Glad you enjoy the tea, son. Old family recipe. See Lucius, and you said I'd never find anyone who appreciated good old fashioned herbal tea in this age." The panther rolled his golden eyes as he grunted to his wrapped midsection, Tom nudging his sensitive ribs with an elbow.

"His methods of execution, while brutal, were quite admirable. I witnessed him slicing a man's throat with a straight edged shaving razor. How simple, but how iconic. I'm sure the other dealers along the block are rattling to pieces when they caught wind of the situation." Scarlet sighed despite her mate's enthusiasm.

"There goes our ten thousand. But on the bright side of things, I got a job at the country store." Blue led Scarlet to sit on his lap on the love seat, crossing her legs as she leaned comfortably back against his chest.

"Splendid, sweetheart. But you couldn't be more farther from the truth." She craned her head back to look up at his grinning visage as he withdrew a wad of folded bills from his pocket. "Ten thousand big ones. Using my indomitable social charismatic skills, I was able to convince I was the one who dealt with everyone in that building.

"They even added an extra five grand in it. And to think, I didn't need to fire a single shot." His chuckling ceased however as the folded bills he was waving around was snatched from his paw and into Dorian's. The ocelot took the tips of paper and slid his thumb across it, hearing the shuffling bills.

"I could get used to this," he smirked. "A nice catch, Indigo. I'll be sure to invest it wisely, don't worry about that." The dog grumbled as his reward was quickly taken away from him.

"That's enough for the repairs to your home, isn't it?" The ocelot nodded.

"For maybe a few walls and windows...but don't forget I included your rent into the total price as well as cost for living utilities. You still owe me..." he paused, counting in his head. "Another twenty-five thousand I believe. That should be enough to fully repair my basement, pay for the food bill you accumulated, the materials you used during your stay, including water and gas, as well as paying for a new mattress and a set of sheets." Blue slumped back as he let a groan pass his lips, Scarlet's comforting paws reaching behind her to pet the top of his head.

"Well," Tom said, clapping his paws together. "Why not have a spot of tea, Dorian? You look like you could use a bit of relaxation." The ocelot shook his head.

"I've had about enough of people telling me to relax today. Christ, you people are starting to make it feel like one big dysfunctional family."

"What do you mean 'you people'?" Lucius cut in as he took a sip of tea. Booker shook his head.

"I need some air." And he walked out onto his porch. Sitting on the brick and concrete steps that led up to his front door, he watched as the street lanterns shown dimly as the sun began to sink behind the horizon, shrouding the area in twilight. He glanced to his drive way and saw Blue's blue Cadillac sitting contently in the spot where his cherry red Ford Mustang once sat. He sighed, how he missed that car.

Something told him to hold on though, a certain sixth sense that his car was alright and that it was actually very close to him. Perhaps it would return to him some day in the near future. He sighed again to wishful thinking and hung his head low, looking down at his feet on the stone steps. A sudden deathly chill ran up his spine, was it night already and he hadn't noticed from the sudden temperature drop? It was late February, but this cold was far more acute than he was used to in the chilly winter months in Paris.

Hailing from Sweden, cold was something he understood very well. But this cold, it cut right through clothing and skin and attacked one's core, icing over the bones and vessels of the body. He gasped as a silvery wisp of smoke blew from his parted lips and he sat up straighter. His heart tightened into a knot in his chest as an unnatural fog slithered across the road across from his home, the ghastly visage of a male ocelot appeared. There was a striking resemblance of the older looking feline to Dorian and the Constable's feline irises shrank to barely visible vertical slits.

The older spotted cat held out a paw to Dorian, the ocelot standing up and slowly stepping towards the transparent form of the elder feline. "Dad?" He looked around, not a single soul, save for him on the street as he looked back to his father. His father's ghostly paw rose up to brush against Dorian's face, his eyes shutting to the icy chill. Reopening his eyes, he was lost in puzzlement as he continued looking at his father's face.

The elder Booker closed his eyes, and then slowly opened them, his irises a stark white, blank of any irises. Red trickled down his eyes as he shouted an unearthly shriek and Dorian, in shocked surprise, flung back, falling on his rump to the hard street floor. The horrid scene, as quickly as it came disappeared as not a trace of his father was there. "What the hell," he gasped, his chest heaving in terror. The door to his home opened up behind him and his ears flickered to a soft voice calling his name.

"Dorian, Dorian are you alright?" Scarlet's voice was full of urgency as she stepped out of the house and saw the feline sitting in the middle of the street. She jogged up to him, kneeling down to his side. "Dorian, what are you doing? Are you alright?"

He continued looking forward, his expression blank as his chest heaved. "Dorian!" Scarlet shouted, coaxing the ocelot's head to finally turn towards her quickly as he stared at her, his eyes wide and empty with fear. "Dorian," she comforted, placing a paw to the side of his face, finding his skin cold as ice. "Are you alright? You look as if you've seen a ghost."

He looked back to where his father was once standing, then back to Scarlet. "I...I..." She hugged his neck and helped him off the street, leading him back to the house.

"You're starting to worry me, Dorian." His lip quivered slightly as he looked to the floor in front of him. "You've been out here for about a few hours now, everyone else is sleeping. I heard you shout outside so I came to see if you were alright. What happened?" Booker blinked and looked up, facing forward. Had it really been hours since he stepped outside?

"I saw my dad..." he said, the statement sliding off his tongue in a hushed tone. "But...that can't be possible. He was killed in a gang fight years ago. But I saw him, just a few moments ago. I saw him. And then..." he glanced towards Scarlet, drinking in her look of concern as he sighed.

"It's nothing, forget I said anything. I just...need some rest." She sighed.

"Oh, Dorian," and she embraced him in a warm hug. He didn't know how to react at that moment, as if confused by the display of affection and concern until he finally wrapped his arms around the woman's slender body. "Are you going to be alright?" He bit his lip and quirked his head.

"I...I don't know. I think I'll be fine though. I just...need some rest." She brought a paw up to rub the back of his long neck as she rested the side of her head against his chest, feeling his erratic heartbeat against her ear.

"I...never thanked you for helping me get that job today, did I?" Dorian glanced down at the blazing red hair of the woman's head that was pressed against his chest. He sighed.

"No...but the experience was more than I could have wished for."

"Still...thank you, Dorian. You've been...very kind to me, what with us trying to kill you before, and now invading your life like this. I really do appreciate it; you're a very strong honorable man for doing all this for us. Indio's thankful for it also, even if he doesn't want to admit it." Dorian rested his chin atop of Scarlet's head.

"Thank you, Scarlet. I always keep saying how horrible it is everyone being crammed into this little house, but...it's been a very unique experience. It's actually kinda nice to have other people in this house with me instead of being alone all the time." She nodded her head against her chest, still holding him tightly. She sighed as he slowly rubbed his paw up and down her back and her ears twitched to the friendly contact.

"You smell really nice," Dorian sighed.

"Thanks..." She withdrew her head from his chest and looked up at him. He gazed down at her and swallowed the lump in his throat. Slowly inching closer, Scarlet's lips trembled as her green eyes shown beautifully in the dark room. Dorian parted his lips slightly as he slowly drew closer to her, his eyes lazily closing with every passing second.

They could feel the warm breath that wafted from their noses as the tip of her cold black nose brushed against his pink one. Brushing her paw over his hair, she cupped the back of his neck and they connected lips. His short spotted tail swayed behind him as his toes curled from within his boots. Pulling away from one another, Scarlet still held onto him as her eyes opened, revealing the glinting emerald irises to him as he looked at her, his green and gold feline irises heavily lidded. She withdrew from him slowly and placed a paw onto his chest, feeling his thumping heart against her palm.

Glancing back up at him for a moment longer, she blinked slowly and slid her paw from his chest, smirking as she remembered feeling his firm midsection back at the country store. She looked back at him and then slowly walked up the stairs to her...Dorian's room. "Goodnight," he called to her. She stopped and looked down from the staircase. Blinking, she gave a soft smile.

"Goodnight, Dorian." And she continued up the stairs, leaving Dorian to his thoughts in the dark living room. He sighed, touching his lips and licking the lingering taste from them. She tasted like cherries, sweet and juicy. Looking back to the staircase, he turned around and headed for the sofa, hanging up his coat and unbuttoning his shirt as he lay on the couch, bringing a thick quilted blanket to cover his body as he kicked off his boots, peeling off his socks and wiggling his toes freely.

"Remember Dorian…" He murmured to himself, "That was just an anomaly. Who knows how many men she has locked lips with…it's become second nature for her. Nothing special about it." He sighed and nodded, strangely comforted by the unease that spread throughout his gut. _I did nothing to betray Carmelita with that kiss_. Dorian smiled, that's all of the reassurance he needed. _After all, Blue isn't going anywhere too soon and I'm just not the kind of guy that temptress is interested in._

Staring up at the ceiling, he blinked slowly as each one seemed to sap the energy of his eyes and he drifted off to sleep, mulling over his thoughts and dreams in the comfort of dark slumber.


	27. Does not Exist

**Chapter 27**

**Does not Exist**

**

* * *

**

**T**he roar of the engine echoed through the streets as a streak of sleek black and gold zoomed through like a gilded arrow let loose from a longbow. Weaving through traffic at reckless speeds, the skilled rider that mounted his Ninja ZX-14 slithered through the streets of Paris. A soft chirp emitted from within his helmet as the communication device implanted into the side of his protective headgear signaled for his attention. "Gold, here," the youth stated.

"Your target, Tom is said to reside somewhere near the city. There will be a change in your assignment as well." Coal Black's unmistakably dark, intense voice echoed through the youth's pointed ears.

"A change?"

"I'm having another associate of mine assist you in your trial."

"Another assassin? But this is my assignment, sir! You never said-

"I've changed the contract; pray I don't change it again, boy. The more adaptive to change you become, the sooner you'll learn your place and perhaps earn the respect you _think_ you deserve from me." The cheetah was silent for a moment as he glared hard through the tinted visor of his helmet.

"Yes sir."

"Now, the man I sent to accompany you is an old friend of mine. I suggest when he makes his presence known, you do well to listen to him and stay out of his way. Mr. White is his name. He is your superior and is a man of unnatural existence and abilities, listen to what he says and do so as he tells without hesitation, else you'll suffer the consequences. Am I understood?"

"With pristine clearness, sir."

"I await your future call." The connection was cut and Pyrite Gold was left to his thoughts. This was his final chance he realized. If he did fail and escape with his life, he would still suffer the penalty of torture induced death at the hands of his mentor. He had seen the things he's done to others in that dark cold room. It was the very first time in that room that he had ever seen a man truly broken, their eyes no longer resembling anything alive or once living as they become mere hollow shells of meat and bone.

His mentor was a cold, heartless man. A natural born killer. He shuddered at the thought of what fate he would be given that was cooking up in the enigmatic mind of his teacher. Gripping tighter on the handles of his bike, he twisted his wrist back, the bike jolted forward even faster than the already reckless speeds as the winds slapped against his body. The breeze cut against him, and he was thankful for the razor sharp winds as it preoccupied his mind from dwelling on other things.

* * *

"Right in here, shh, shh." Penelope and Bentley crowded around the door to Sly's bedroom as they slowly opened the door, peering through the small slit in the wooden portal. They both adjusted their glasses and looked in to see a pair of animals sharing the bed together. Penelope sighed. "Isn't that just sweet?" Bentley smiled, until it disappeared from his face.

"Yeah, but she's still a cop." She nudged the turtle with her elbow as they continued watching the two animals sleeping together. Sly Cooper was resting on his side, his muzzle inches away from Carmelita's as their arms were wrapped loosely around one another. His deep, relaxed breathing was in tune with hers as her nose twitched and she wiggled her body closer towards the raccoon's, falling deeper into his embrace while still asleep. Bentley shook his head.

"Even in their sleep, they're drawn to one another. I swear; it's like two oppositely charged ions." At the sound of Sly stirring in his sleep, Bentley and Penelope quickly darted away from the door and closed it slowly.

"Let's give them some time together. I think they've earned it as much as we have." The reptile nodded, adjusting his glasses.

"I'm sure all last night was special for the two of them, what with Murray on a hunger rampage last night. I swear, of all the girls he had to fall for, it had to be the highest ranking officer in Interpol. He could have looked for maybe a doctor or something, I don't know." The small mouse quirked a brow and smirked.

"Ah, come on, you're sounding like some stuffy old parent not wanting to let Sly go. He's a grown man too, Bentley. Besides, I didn't hear anything when we got back, and it wasn't _that_ late." The turtle huffed as they headed back downstairs. "And what's wrong with picking out of the ordinary? You'd rather be with some boring simpleton than me?" He grinned and shrugged.

"Well, it would probably be a little less hectic around here, what with you insisting we straighten up around here and color coordinate our furniture and carpeting." As the two continued into the living room, Cooper's ears twitched as he sniffed the air about him, his tingling nose coaxing him to open his eyes. His first sight of the day was the sleeping Carmelita's face, her soft feminine features relaxed and at ease in the comforts of sleep. Her dark curls were pulled back, yet a few ringlets found their way out from the elastic band and spiraled around her shoulders and from her brow. Her body was flush against his as he closed his eyes and sighed in comfort.

Reaching towards her, he cupped her cheek that wasn't buried in the pillow as he ran his fingers through her dark hair, leaning forward to plant a soft kiss on her lips. She tilted her head slightly as her eyes cracked open, seeing the length of his muzzle against hers as she closed her eyes again and moved her arms up to encircle his neck. Pulling away from his lips, her eyes fluttered open and she rested her nose against his. "I could get used to this…" he whispered to her.

Fox replied with pecking the tip of his coal black nose. "How the hell did this happen?" Her voice was slow and quiet as she shook the final grips of sleep from her, her eyes wavering at the chance of closing again. Cooper smiled and patted her head, drawing a breath through his nose as he sat up, swinging his legs over the edge of the mattress. Carmelita arched her back and stretched, letting out a light squeak as she stretched the muscles of her back and shoulders, her arms reaching towards the ceiling.

Sly looked over his shoulder to her, still smiling as he watched her sitting in his bed, clad in one of his shirts and sweatpants. She looked to him, feeling his stare and furrowed her brows to him. "What?" The raccoon shook his head.

"Nothing…it's just nice, seeing you like this. That's all."

"Mmm," she murmured, plucking the collar of the large shirt. "Wearing my most sexy of lingerie coupled with morning breath."

"Well, if you'd rather have slept naked-

"Don't finish that sentence." His mouth pressed shut as she pointed a finger to him and stood up off the bed, wiggling her toes against the carpeted floor. Picking up the clothes she arrived in off the floor, she looked over her shoulder to Sly and waved a paw at him, signaling for him to turn around. He faced the wall, his back to her as he continued sitting on the mattress, his ears twitching to the shuffling of fabric.

"I already know what you look like underneath those clothes…why keep teasing me like this?" She smiled, not allowing him to see it as she reached down and pulled her jeans up her legs.

"Consider it a…taste. Now that you've had a sample, you'll know what's in store for you for the main course." His roaming eyes slowly began to look over his shoulder once more; Carmelita catching the movement from the corner of her eye narrowed her gaze. "Turn around, you perv. I love you, but for god's sake I still require a _little_ bit of privacy." He sighed as he chuckled, resting his arms on his thighs and lowering his head down between his knees.

"You've no idea what this is doing to me… the way I feel about you, looking the way you do."

"Relax, stud." She lightly shook her head as she reached down for her bra and reached back, catching the hook to connect the two straps securely to her back. Cradling her bust for a moment, she looked around and reached for her halter top from off the floor and pulled it on, pulling her hair out from the back of the tight shirt as she ran her fingers through the lush curly locks. Cooper looked back again, seeing her covered caused him to form a sarcastic frown to curve on his lips. Sitting up from the mattress, he rubbed his shoulder as the thick dark coiled tail behind him swayed back and forth contently. Reaching for his sweater, he pulled the blue cotton shirt over himself and turned around, feeling Carmelita resting a paw on his shoulder. She looked at him as he turned around, his eyes moving to her paw that reached up to offer him his cap.

Taking the offered hat, he stepped forward and melted into another kiss from her, placing one of her soft paws against the side of his face. "Thanks…" She blinked and slid her paw off his face as she walked towards the door to the bathroom. Reaching into one of her bags, she withdrew a toothbrush and located the paste tube by the sink. Combing his hair back, Sly entered the bathroom with the vixen and pulled open the drawer underneath the sink.

Producing a small pair of silver clippers, he looked into the mirror, seeing his scruffy appearance and brought the scissors up to his cheek, clipping off the long scraggly hairs around his jaw line. Cutting off the last few uneven hairs under his chin, he rubbed his palm across his face and neck, smirking to his satisfaction. Carmelita cupped her paws together as she swished the water in her mouth and spat out the excess toothpaste. Then, grabbing a brush began combing it through her dark waves of curls. She glanced up to see Cooper simply comb a paw through his hair and the spiked tufts poked back up despite his flattening palm.

Rolling her eyes, she continued combing. "That is so unfair…" she sighed. Sly chuckled and placed a paw onto her lower back. "What time is it?" The raccoon glanced out of the bathroom door to see the clock by the nightstand.

"Quarter till nine. Why, you got a date?" She shoved him with an elbow and continued combing.

"Dorian's already at work, we could drop off his car and get that out of the way."

"I told you I wanted to meet him though…" Carmelita paused, and then continued brushing her hair.

"Cooper, that's probably not the smartest decision you've ever made, you know that?" The raccoon nodded, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"I know…but it's only a matter of time. I don't care if anything really did happen between you two. I believed you when you said Scarlet doctored those photos." Carmelita bit her lip to the sour memories.

"It was only the date she tampered with, Sly. The pictures she took…I was angry, at you and at myself for how horrible I was treating Dorian while trying to defend your honor. He felt destroyed about what he said, acting on jealousy instead of rationality. Then, when I saw you with Scarlet, my mind jumped around, seeing sense in what he said about you. I…thought there was no one I could turn to. I never felt so alone in that instant."

Sly buried his snout into her hair and sighed. "I don't care, hon. It's the past, nothing truly happened as far as I'm concerned." He withdrew his face from her hair and helped her comb the lower strands of her hair. "We can both be civil about this; he's an officer of the law. I'm sure he can exercise restraint."

* * *

"For the millionth time, NO!" Constable Booker slammed his fist onto the table as Indigo leaned calmly in the back of his chair opposite the officer.

"Do you really have to talk so loudly?"

"It seems the only way for you to listen to me, **IS IF I HAVE TO SCREAM AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS!** I said time and time again, stop mixing hazardous material in my house. Not the basement, not the garage, not the god damned bathroom either!" Blue blew out a ragged breath, letting his lips flap against each other lazily as he stood up and went for the door.

"I need another smoke."

"And another thing, my front stoop wreaks of tobacco smoke whenever I step outside!" Blue stepped aside as Tom and Lucius entered the door.

"Morning, Indigo."

"Tom…" and he stepped outside, flicking open his lighter and burning the tip of one of his cigarettes.

"Dorian, my boy, we've got news!" He glanced around. "Where is Scarlet?"

"Work," the ocelot stated matter-of-factly. Tom snapped his fingers.

"Ah yes, she got a job, I completely forgot. Anywho, you might want to take a peek at this. Lucius and I have been doing some sleuthing about and I must say, we've come across quite a smashing bit of information here." Dorian glanced at the photos and papers Tom slapped down on the table. With an _hmm_ of intrigue from his throat, he looked through the pages and pictures.

"The Cooper vault? Relics of power? This ain't a flippin' comic book, man." The golden jackal shook his head with a smile.

"On the contrary. It is all in fact quite real." Tom pointed to another section of the files. "You're not familiar with the Cooper vault? It happened recently. About oh…a year or so ago. The entire vault which housed every piece valuable to the Cooper clan they had ever stolen sank to the bottom of the ocean. It was used as an unlimited reserve of funds for the Cooper line throughout the centuries. Combing what was left of the island that it was built on, we found a small offshoot of the cavern, yet not a single speck of gold or jewelry was found. The cave collapsed before we could continue searching any further. Seems Coal is very, _very_ interested in the vault of the Coopers. With untold amounts of riches buried under the ocean, he could do unimaginable things with such wealth." Dorian scratched his chin.

"And what about these relics of power?" Tom leaned forward closer, over the ocelot's shoulder to better discern the papers.

"Ah, yes. Seems there was an assortment of ancient relics from the Egyptian era that were housed within the vault as well since its construction by the first Cooper, Slytankhamen II of Egypt. What Coal wants with them is beyond me, there wasn't too much info on them."

"Alright…but what does all this have to do with Cooper? He's suddenly at the center of all this? What, did his dad screw Coal over or something a long time ago?" Tom placed a paw on the feline's shoulder.

"How much do you know of Clockwerk and the Cooper clan, Dorian?" The Constable shook his head slightly in ignorance.

"Not much actually. Just a large metal bird and a family line of thieves."

"Allow me to enlighten you on a few things."

* * *

Scarlet hummed a melodic tune to herself as she continued dusting off the interesting knickknacks that adorned the shelves of the store, keeping things spick and span as Madam Francois was busy with another customer. Aldric hefted a large box in his arms and gently set it down, pulling out sheets of bubble wrap and Styrofoam as he slowly lifted out an elegant vase. He looked to the glossy piece of pottery and his eyes lit up. "Fourteenth century Ming Dynasty…" he breathed, looking to Scarlet.

"How Madam Francois managed to get this is beyond me." She chuckled and stepped towards the large grey animal. Placing a finger on the edge of the opening, her long red nails clicked against the rough clay interior.

"It's a fake. A replica manufactured in the United States. You can see from the cross hatch. I doubt Madam Francois would be selling something of that caliber for," she glanced down at the price tag intended for the item. "Thirty-nine, ninety-nine." The wolf shrugged and lifted the heavy vase up to the high shelf.

Scarlet returned to her business, labeling the cans of nonperishable foods as well as the bags of assorted sweets until her ear flicked to the sound of Francois and Aldric behind her. "All the inventory has been moved, Madam Francois." He wiped his brow with a cloth. The rabbit reached up and patted his cheek in appreciation.

"Thank you, sweetheart. What would we girls do without you here?" He blushed and gave a chuckle as he patted down his neck from sweating from moving the heavy crates that had shipped this morning.

"It's my pleasure, Madam. Is there anything else you need?" The rabbit placed a paw to her chin and slowly moved her eyes up and down the young man for a moment.

"No," she stated warmly. "You can take your break now before the afternoon rush early." His expression lightened up as his breathing became a bit more relaxed.

"Thank you Madam Francois."

"Think nothing of it, sweetheart." She patted his chest, a thought coming to her mind with a sly smile. "However…there could be something you could do for me before your lunch break." Scarlet smirked in knowing, herself very familiar with the signals Madam Francois was sending to the wolf as she herself had done the same thing with countless other men during her less than sympathetic career.

"Of course, Madam. Whatever you need," the naïve lupine exclaimed, enjoying the prospect of assisting his beautiful employer. She clutched his paw, leading him back behind the counter down the hallway.

"Just down this hall, if you don't mind, sweetheart." Scarlet watched the two disappear behind the door to the back room and she shook her head with a smile as she sighed through parted lips. Her attention turned back to the large windows of the shop, her eyes growing larger as she noticed a very familiar looking group of animals clambering down the street. Indigo, Dorian, Tom, and Lucius ran across the street, a car skidding to a halt as they strode past the vehicle on the road and disappeared through an alleyway. Scarlet bit her lip, looking back to the back room and then back out the window;but the tapping of heels on the hardwood floor brought her attention to the backroom once more.

"And once you're finished with that, you can mop the bathroom, and _then_ you can take your lunch break." Madam Francois hollered, receiving a muffled grunt in reply. The lapin grinned leaned on the glass counter-top. "I swear…boys are so easy to manipulate."

Scarlet gave her this look of disbelief for a moment, and the rabbit chuckled. "What? You think I would drag Aldric into the backroom? Please, I have standards, and while the lupine meets them physically, he just isn't my type." She grinned, "I like a challenge and not a push-over."

"Dorian isn't quite a challenge, but he isn't a push-over either." Scarlet replied, "And can I take my break now? I have somewhere I need to be."

"Yes, that's Dorian's shining quality. Balance. And yes, you may take your leave. Go on my dear, I know that when a woman needs to be somewhere she _needs_ to be somewhere."

Pulling on her red coat, Scarlet straightened the collar and pulled the belt sash tight around her slim waist and bolted down the sidewalk after turning the sign in the front window over; the "Open soon" being shown to the world outside.

* * *

"Hmm, things are certainly starting to get interesting." Tom mused aloud as he rubbed his paw under his chin in deep concentration. "Lucius," he turned to the panther. "I'll need you hidden, if things go to hell in a hand basket, you'll be there to spring out and catch any inconveniences unawares." The cat nodded and began unbuttoning his shirt, pulling the fabric open to expose the tight stealth suit under his clothing.

Pulling on the skullcap, he ran down the length of the alley towards the more shadowed corner of the path and disappeared almost flawlessly. Dorian's brows were furrowed slightly as he moved his irises towards Tom. "Does the suit have to be _that_ tight?"

"He might as well be wearing nothing at all," Blue scoffed, narrowing his glowing blue eyes. Tom chuckled and nodded in agreement, pulling out his firearm and setting it to fire a three round burst.

"Alright, the compound is exactly five blocks down from our current position. Blue, I want you in first. Lob a few grenades inside and incapacitate the majority of the threat. Dorian and I will clear out any stragglers." Blue cleared his throat and placed a paw around one of the canisters of gas strapped to his person under his coat. "Alright, are we all ready?" He turned to Blue who bit down harder on the stem of his cigarette and blew out a stream of grey smoke.

"If only I had some nitroglycerin, eh Dorian?" The ocelot responded with a fully extended middle finger as Blue chuckled and ground the smoldering wrapped stick into the ground. Stepping casually out of the alleyway, he gave an _hmm_ in thought as he noticed the assembled armed men in dark suits and coats quickly identified him and reached for their firearms. Sighing, he grabbed two grenades off his vest under his coat and lobbed them towards the guardsmen. The men dove for cover, finding the grenade clicking against the ground, only to rest silently on the gravel.

Shrugging to his ally, the lean Sheppard cocked his head back to the malamute and leveled his pistol at the black and white animal. The second one followed suit, until the clink of the metal clip from the canister shot out and a thick smoke billowed out from the small metallic container. Glancing back to the accumulating cloud behind them, they were about to cover their mouths as the lethal smoke clogged into the moist inside of their throats and they began to gag, clutching their necks as their eyes stung. The smoke wafted in through the opened garage way and the music of more shouts and gags graced the malamute's ears. Cupping a paw to his ears, he smiled. "Ah, such sweet, sweet symphony of hallow wickedness that tears at the hearts of mortal men."

"Being a little too dramatic, aren't we, dear Indigo?" Tom clapped the malamute's shoulder as they continued down the driveway and into the complex. Screams surrounded the men, Dorian grimacing to the sights as grown men were reduced to crawling across the floors, tears streaming down their eyes as they clawed at the clothing that was "wrapping tighter and tighter around me like snakes!"

"Sadist," he spat at Indio who watched fondly at the armed men's reactions.

"Why thank you, Booker. I pride myself on my work." He chuckled as he took a threatening step towards a trembling spaniel and shouted, "Boo!" The canine responded with a shriek as he clawed at the wall, trying to escape. Curious to what the dog might have witnessed, the group continued on through the nonhostile post, disguised as a warehouse.

A jet black feathered crow, with trembling feathered hands clutched the handle of his pistol and clamped down on his beak hard as he tried to see through the hallucinations of winged demons tearing at his black blade like feathers and flesh. Leveling the barrel of his revolver at Dorian, he sucked in a series of breaths as his heart began to loosen from the emotional knot of the disturbing images. His eyes shot open to their fullest as his pupils shrank to pinholes, a rasped breath being sucked in. It was the last taste of oxygen he would ever have the honor of letting slide down his throat. The animals turned around to his gag, and noticed the avian standing up, his back arched as his chest was heaving forward, and reachinga trembling arm back until it fell limp to his side.

"Darling," a familiar voice called over the deceased bird. "You know I hate being kept out of the loop.A dearest Dorian...I do believe I saved you're life." Scarlet Crimson, her blazing red figure stood behind the bird as she pushed the lifeless body to slump facedown into the floor, withdrawing a knife from the back of the crow and touching the moist blade with two fingers. She lapped the spots of red on her fingers to her tongue and she gave a satisfied _mmm_ to hum from her throat. The wicked woman wiped her blade clean and sauntered over to Blue, hugging his torso tenderly.

"Oh lover, don't tell me you were planning to have all this fun without me here watching your back." Blue chuckled and nuzzled her neck, licking her cheek with his tongue.

"Of course not my little sugar dumpling. You were at work; I thought we would be able to have ourselves a get in, get out little spit in the eye to ol Coal." She rubbed her nose against his and she giggled along with his chuckling. The other animals all looked at each other with sidelong glances.

"Oh, my beautiful blue eyed bunny boo."

"I love you my little velvet cherry tot."

"Good god, I think I'm going to be sick," Dorian groaned. "You two wanna take this outside or can we get this over with?"

"You want a hug, Dorian? Because we've got plenty to go around." Scarlet and Blue reached out to the ocelot in mock empathy as the feline scoffed and walked farther up the large ramp to the upper level of the building.

"Yes, let's speed things along now, shall we?" Tom rolled his paw around his wrist and withdrew his Glock from under his arm. Lucius remained silent, as always as he gave a mute sigh and followed Tom and Dorian.

"What exactly are we here for now?" Tom's ears perked up to Scarlet's question and he gave a thin lipped grin.

"Simply put, we're getting back at Coal and hopefully rouse the hornets' nest a bit. Get the old man out of his hiding spot and put an end to all this nonsense. Also, this place has been a bit of an eyesore as of late and I'm hoping to do a little community service."

"Ah, risking our lives for the dear community. How warm and fuzzy I feel all of a sudden."

"Shut your hole, Blue," Dorian snapped. "I'm sure there's a nice spot in hell reserved for you when this all blows over. So you have that little bit of info to contemplate while you find yourself a new living." Blue winced to the sting of the insult, but cleared his throat and remained silent, calming the heat welling up inside his chest.

"We should be very….close..." Tom said slowly as he pressed his palm against one of the dark concrete walls, letting his palm slide against the surface. A soft click caused his ears to perk up as the section of the wall depressed slightly into itself. "Bingo," he stated, pressing his paw harder into the wall as it swung open. "This should be what we're looking for."

"And what exactly are we looking for?" Scarlet quirked a brow as Blue shifted his shoulders slightly, balancing most of his weight on his left leg. Dorian narrowed his gaze to the jackal and panther as they combed through the dark chamber, scrounging up soiled old parchments along with sophisticated digital cartridges, USB drives, and disks.

"Viola," Lucius stated as he held up a thick stack of papers, tattered and brown from age as it felt more like felt than paper.

"Good show, Lu."

"Hold up a second," Dorian cut in, placing a paw onto the jackal's shoulder. "I thought this was a sabotage mission, not digging up information on this guy. I already suggested that we look up more on Coal, but you said there was nothing of value here. What's going on, 'Tom'?" The Englishman glanced to the black feline next to him and then looked back to the ocelot.

"I can honestly tell you there is nothing of value here…for any of you, that is." He plucked Dorian's paw from his shoulder and straightened the collar of his coat. Dorian halted him once more as Blue and Scarlet blocked their exit.

"No more keeping us out of the loop, Tom. We're not going through with your plans till you give us some insight."

"First," Blue cut in. "Who exactly do you work for?" Tom glanced to the malamute and then back to Dorian. Stepping closer to the feline, he gazed towards him, his eyes pleading to him.

"Have I ever given you reason not to trust me?" Dorian tilted his head in confusion. "Just do this one favor for me…do not get involved any farther than you already are. This isn't some case, catch the bad guys, throw them in jail." He glanced back to Scarlet and Indigo, placing his palms together.

"As far as we're all concerned, there is no _Tom. Tom_ never existed, you've never met him, and he's never seen you before in his entire life, understand? The same applies to Lucius." The panther nodded.

"Even if you decided to look for any information on us, you wouldn't find anything." He pulled off one of his gloves and raised his paw, fingers spread apart. The padded spots of the end of his fingers were completely bald, devoid of any wrinkles or lines. "All our finger prints have been erased, same goes with our feet, along with any records of said prints existing, social security numbers, addresses, and phone numbers. I personally saw my birth certificate become a useless, blank document."

"We're ghosts, distant memories in every sense of the words," Tom continued, picking up where his comrade had left off. "This organization we work for, it does not exist either. Say anything to anyone, and we will deny it all. No investigations will come back with any evidence of organization which aforementioned does not exist. You can't touch us, friends."

"We aren't real, so let us do our jobs and you may do yours." He glanced to the findings in his paws, then back to the other animals as Lucius continued out the door, brushing past Indigo and Scarlet with a thrust of his shoulder. "We're still your allies in this," he said, placing a paw onto Dorian's shoulder. "But we cannot jeopardize anything. If any of you become potential hazards…I'm afraid our alliance will end as quickly as it started. Just remember, we're here to stop Coal, same as you."

"You want him six feet under; we want his organization a hollow shell…another distant memory if you will." With that, he clapped Dorian's shoulder in a friendly manner and smiled politely as Blue and Scarlet stepped out of his way. "However," Tom continued, turning around. "We can still take this place down, if it strikes your fancy." Dorian growled and shoved off Tom's paw and drew out his gun, placing it in Tom's chest.

"I don't like working with people I don't know. The only reason I haven't killed the two of you and turned in the love birds over there is because I can't do this alone. But once this is over, everyone is getting a one way ticket to the Super-Max in Château'-de-hoc. Is that understood by everyone here?" Dorian growled and looked around. "And don't act like you and I have been the best of friends, Tom.

"Now, we bring the rest of that information, we might need it. I don't like being used as a pawn in your organization's grand-scheme, Tom."

"Well," the jackal said, clapping his paws together. "I will admit, you've been quite adamant so far. I guess I could give you the benefit of the doubt. Yes we are using you, but not to your disadvantage. Be reasonable here, without our help, things wouldn't be going as smoothly as they have before.

"As a matter of fact, I do believe you owe me for saving both you and Inspector Fox on numerous occasions before we officially made acquaintances."

"I call bullshit on that one. Carmelita and I have done everything on our own." Dorian growled.

"Have you now," Tom mused, his lips stretching into a knowing smile. Dorian scowled and pulled the hammer back, knowing full well that he could kill Tom and Lucius before they could react. He knew that Scarlet and Indigo were uneasy about working with these two ghosts, and the ocelot was sure that they wouldn't object.

"Well then, since we're pawns and you're ghosts, how do we know that we aren't expendable? I know we've been through this before, but with your latest speech and 'I'm above the law' outlook...how do we know that you aren't going to go back on your word and just kill us when our backs are turned, especially since what is there to bind the words of men who don't exist?" Tom smiled and threw his arms up.

"You're just going to have to trust me. I can't bring Coal's syndicate down without you, and your no match for the man without my knowledge."

"Knowledge? You know jackshit about the man." Dorian stated matter-o-factly, "And if you did, you wouldn't be searching for information pertaining to him, now would you?" Scarlet chewed on her lip as she nodded, practically able to taste the tension.

"Who was it that led you here, Dorian? Who was it that had his eyes on the happenings in this city while you and Inspector Fox were busy trying to solve break in's at hardware stores? "Though there is still much more to learn, do you truly know where to even begin without our help?

"And where the hell would you be without our help? As much as you like to tout your big stick, it was Scarlet and Indigo that provided you with 95% of the information you needed to even find this place. If it weren't for them, you'd still be running around like a chicken with your head cut off? And if it weren't for me, they'd either be dead or rotting behind bars. So everything comes full circle."

"Well then," Tom took a slow step forward, pressing his forehead against the cold barrel of Dorian's firearm. "It seems you have things sorted out for yourself...what point is there in you letting me leave? What is your choice, Constable? Will you pull that trigger, or help me to help you save the world as it were?"

"I can do both, you know." There was a loud click as the trigger was pulled, and the hammer snapped down on the firing pin. Lucius growled and narrowed his eyes as Tom's widened in slight amazement. "I just killed you Tom. Or, you would have been dead if I bothered to chamber a round."

The ocelot lowered the weapon and holstered it. "Once this is all over, and once i get another chance, I'll be sure to have a round in the chamber just for you. The world doesn't have a need for those that aren't bound by the laws."

"Don't double-cross me, Tom." Dorian growled.

"And don't disappoint me, Constable..."

Blue gave a smirk as the vixen next to him eyed him accusingly.

"Luckily, I salvaged a little bit of one of my little projects in Dorian's basement." He grinned as he reached a paw into his pocket. "I'll meet the rest of you outside; I'll be just a moment."

* * *

An enormous rumble vibrated under the raccoon's feet as he stared ominously out into the expanses of the city, perched atop another anonymous rooftop. "What…was...?" A chirp coaxed him to reach into his holster and he withdrew a small communication's device, clipping it to his ear as he pressed a finger to it.

"Did you feel that?" Carmelita's voice filled the raccoon's ears, the vixen loaning Cooper the device as a way of staying in contact without Bentley having to make another binoc-u-com for her.

"Yeah, I felt it," he stated, seeing a dark dust cloud slowly billowing up from the sea of roofs and windows. "Wasn't any earth quake either. A cloud of dust just kicked up as the shaking began, which means whatever caused the smoke, caused the boom. Some small building just came crashing down."

"I didn't notice any flames or black smoke, which means it wasn't explosives that brought it down." Carmelita paused on the other line, her position pulling to the right of the street and parking the Mustang, exiting her vehicle to investigate the scene as many frightened and confused animals watched with acute attentiveness. The zip of a motorcycle zooming directly behind her caused her to stiffen for a moment, feeling the breeze from the passing motorist's velocity. "¡Madre de Dios!" she cursed, catching her breath.

"What happened?"

"Some asshole nearly took me out riding a motorcycle, moving _fast_." She narrowed her gaze to the direction the bike sped towards. "Heading towards the dust cloud…"

"How fast?"

"I'd say recklessly fast."

"I'll meet you at the scene," he said, cutting the connection short.

"What are you up to, Cooper?" She whispered to herself as she looked up towards the peaks of structures, trying to catch a glimpse of the sprinting raccoon. Sighing, she climbed back into the car and sped towards the leveled building.

* * *

"Blue!" Scarlet shouted as the initial shock of the rumble passed from her. The group of animals picked themselves off the ground of the alley as the blast knocked them all flat onto their backs. Her eyes full of fear, the red vixen took a hesitating step towards the growing tower of dust, her heart catching within her throat as she saw the dark shadowed silhouette of a man casually strolling towards them.

Lighting a cigarette, Blue had his back turned from the building he just singlehandedly leveled into ruble. The malamute chuckled as he patted down the shoulder of his coat, freeing it of dust. "I must say, that went almost _exactly_ as I pictured it in my head." He bowed, glancing up. "No applause? I'm appalled."

"You son of a bitch!" Dorian howled out, "That went _exactly _as you planned!? You were mixing that shit in _my_ basement all of this time! Do you have any idea what would have happened if you messed up-!? What part of that is low-key!? You want to bring the entire Interpol department down on this place! You've just attracted every available officer within a fifty-mile radius!"

Blue just continued to smirk and the ocelot shook his head. "You never listen anyways." He sighed, a waft of grey expelling from his parted lips. "Tom said to stir up the hornet's nest, what better way than to level a building, hmm? And I doubt Interpol will be a bother. Not a trace of fire or chemical residue to be counted for, and I'm sure none of us would be giving the police the advantage of us waiting for them while we sit on our paws. Come now, lawman look at the bigger picture here."

"What bigger picture?! You know the picture I see now? I see a crazed lunatic standing in front of what was once a five story building!" Blue smiled, biting down on his cigarette.

"You flatter me, Dorian. And here I was beginning to suspect you didn't like me." Taking a long pull from his cigarette, the sudden screech of brakes against pavement caught the animal's individual attentions. A quick flurry of movement and a loud _bang _echoed down the alley. Indigo glanced down at the end of his cigarette and found it less than half the size it originally was. Spitting out the little stubble of tobacco, he sighed and pulled out his silenced nine millimeter.

The others followed suit, turning around as they heard the crunching of boot soles against gravel. At the end of a smoking barrel held within the paws of a spotted youthful cheetah, the young Pyrite Gold gave a casual smile with his sharp brows perpetually locked into a solid leer. Pulling the barrel back to his lips, he blew away the bellowing smoke and twirled it in his paws as he spoke. "So, everyone's all here, eh?" His voice was calm and calculating as he took another step forward, his legs parted as he stepped with wide sweeps of his legs, much like some old western desperado as the leather holsters strapped to his thighs and the chiming of the steel plates bolted between the gap from the sole and heel of his boots made him all the more ominous.

His eyes darted towards the golden furred jackal and the corner of his lips twitched in satisfaction. "Tom…Coal sends his regards." The jackal nodded slowly and blinked as he took a step forward, separating himself from the rest of the group.

"Young Master Gold…" he looked over his shoulder, then back to the cheetah. "It warms me to see you in good health after our last little skirmish."

"You got lucky, pops," the youth spoke, wagging the long barrel of his revolver like a scolding finger. "But this time…this time you'll be the one full of holes." Blue chuckled to himself as he reached for another cigarette from the wrapped box he drew from his coat pocket. Smacking the box against his palm, the white tip poked out for his lips to grasp and he drew it from the small container.

"Stupid little boy. Look around you…" he laughed as he lit the end of the cigarette, his ears falling flat as Gold shot the end off this one as well. Plucking the damaged stick of tobacco from his lips, he closed his eyes and drew in a calming breath. "There are five of us, and only one of you. And if you destroy another one of my silk cuts again, I'll paint the walls with you." Gold twirled his revolvers in his paws, and then trained them onto Tom once more.

"I'm not after you or that bitch of yours, so sit back like a good dog and let me do my job." The five other animals responded by withdrawing their own weapons. "All I want is Tom…that's all I'm after. You wanna make things more difficult for yourselves, fine by me. I doubt anyone here could match my draw."

"Your shot might not be fatal, kid," Dorian piped up. "You'll only have one chance while we fill you with holes. And then you won't be able to spend that cash you'll get from this little gig of yours. Wake up, dick head, think before you act."

"Strength in numbers they say," Gold smirked until the breath from his lips became visible, the silvery fog wafting from his parted mouth. A ghastly chill ran up his spine as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Everyone in the alley were displaying the same symptoms as well, Tom's eyes darting to his left as they grew to the side of saucers.

"_Angel, do you plan on staying late at the office again, tonight? I thought we would spend a nice night together…" _Tom remained still, the grip on his firearm loosening as his paws shook.

"A-Annabelle…?" The ghostly female jackal smiled worriedly to Tom. Dorian, Blue, and Scarlet along with Gold watched intently to the scene. "No…no, it's not real!" He shot his head up, quickly looking around. "Where are you hiding you heartless bastard?!"

"_Little Blue?"_ Indigo's back went rigid as an itch ran up his spine, and he slowly turned around. Behind the malamute stood a female husky, ice blue eyes glowing like sapphires, exactly as his. _"Why are you crying, baby boy? Did you have another nightmare?" _

"Mother…" He reached towards her, but drew back as he shook his head. "No…no! Enough of this, White!"

"_Don't worry little Blue; I'll be right here by your bedside to chase all the boogey-men away." _She began humming a soft, enriching melody. The soothing tone did almost exactly the opposite to Blue's demeanor as he crashed to his knees and tears bubbled out of his eyes.

"Stop…stop it. Make it stop! **Shut up!**" He slammed his fists against the ground as Scarlet rushed to him, until she stopped dead in her tracks as a dark chuckle rolled out like thunder behind her.

"_Well…ain't you a pretty young thing, eh?" _Her eyes grew big as her heart twisted into a tight knot. _"Don't you scream now…"_ a tan scruffy dog chortled as he twitched his pointed black ears. Scarlet's lips quivered as she slowly stepped back, brandishing her knife to the embodiment of horror she faced when she was just a girl. Living on the streets after her parents died, huddled in a heap of trash for warmth, the very same sandy furred man she now looked upon coming up to her and brandishing a knife as he slashed away at her clothing, intent on violating her to sedate his lust for young female flesh.

She slashed him through the throat with his own knife that day, years ago…and now he was back, reciting the same dialog in the same hellish voice that taunted her in her dreams whenever she was stressed or frightened as she went to sleep. "Please…this isn't real, this isn't real." Gold's expression brightened as he saw fate smile upon him for a change.

"Well, what better time than to have a nervous breakdown than the present, eh?" He chuckled as he leveled the barrel of his revolver to Tom as he shuddered, slouched on his knees as he looked up to his departed wife.

"Pyrite…I suggest you leave now." Gold's heart jumped to his throat as he heard the chilling voice by him. Looking around, he failed to recognize the owner of the voice. Then, glancing up, he noticed a pristine flawlessly snowy furred rodent standing atop the building that made up the alley's left wall. Pyrite quirked a brow and his breath drew within his lips as he saw the weasel take a step forward, plummeting off the four story building.

How was he able to carry his voice from that height to Gold's ears as if he were speaking calmly at his side was beyond him. Even more bizarre was how he landed on his feet after the fall without as much as a grunt of pain. He pushed the frameless lenses of his glasses up the bridge of his nose and his hallow eyes bore into the youth. "By Coal's orders, it would be advisory for you to leave this place, now." Gold scoffed, glancing down to see the white rodent's feet suspended above the ground a few inches.

"Like hell, this is my target Houdini! Get the hell out of my way or start swallowing bullets. Your choice pal, I need this job a lot more than you do." The weasel didn't move, causing Gold to become upset as he drew his revolver up and shot a round straight through the rodent's forehead. The bullet passed through his head as it would a cloud of fog as the bullet hole quickly closed. Gold's face faltered.

"Leave…now." Gold leered towards the gold jackal on the floor and Gold quickly rushed for him, pushing past the weasel. "Pyrite, no!" The youth would have trampled over the white animal, if not for simply passing through him and feeling an icy grip tighten around his heart. He abruptly stopped, frozen in his tracks as his heart beat like a hummingbird's and his feline irises shrank to dark little slits.

His fingers went numb as the revolvers clasped in his paws slid free and his legs wobbled as if boneless. _"Look what you made me do, you little spotted shit!" _Gold's ears perked up, hearing the familiar female voice, husky and violent. Turning around, his face met that of another cheetah, her eyes bore into him as a dark flame smoldered in her irises. The distraught female cheetah held out her forearm, flashing a kitchen knife at the younger feline.

_"Do you know what you're misbehavior makes mommy do!? This!"_ She placed the blade against her arm and dragged it down, the blade cutting through flesh and fur; blood quickly flowing out of the wound and onto the dirty concrete of the alleyway. Gold crumpled to the floor, crashing to his knees as he watched his mother mutilate herself in front of her. He gasped, feeling his chest grow lighter and he watched a small little boy appear in front of him, looking as if the child walked out of Pyrite's body. The female cheetah's foot was quick to lash out, catching the young cub in the chin causing him to tumble end over end before he collided with the wall. The boy sniffled because he didn't have enough air in his lungs to breath.

_"Mommy..."_ Little Gold whispered out, but his plea fell on deaf ears.

_"This is all your fault, you little brat!"_ Melissa Gold cried out as he lifted her wounded arm above Pyrite and began to clench her muscles; blood seeping out onto the youthful cheetah. _"It's your fault Danny left me! You're the reason why Jonathan didn't stay! You're ruining my life you little shit!"_

Pyrite, along with his childish incarnation could feel the warm crimson liquid seep into his head fur, and he was about to cry when her fist caught him in the chest. Once again he was left breathless, his small body curling up into a ball as an angry Melissa dragged him off of the floor by his lapel and threw him across the room._ "All of your childish pranks, all of your taunts and teasing...Jonathan couldn't stand a little devil like you running around! And just that fact that you were growing inside of me made Danny turn tail and run! Everything...everything is your fault Pyrite Gold! You little worthless shit!"_

Melissa held the knife above her and brought it down, the metal stabbing into the carpet right next to the child's head; and the older feline brought her muzzle right up next to the trembling Pyrite's ear. _"And..." _She whispered hoarsely, body trembling as adrenaline, pain, and rage coursed through her system. _"I'm going to make sure that if mommy has to suffer...then so does little Pyrite. After all...fair is fair." _With that said she yanked the blade out of the carpet and made a small cut on Pyrite's shoulder; the sharp metal easily tearing through the tattered white cotton.

The young cheetah cried out but his cry was quickly smothered by her paw covering his muzzle. _"Shhhhh.... this hurts me more than it hurts you..." _Another cut, this time on his stomach, the shallow mark only damaging flesh underneath it but not muscle or anything let out a raucous laugh as he made another cut; her laughter drowning out any cries that escaped young Pyrite's muzzle._ "__Well what do you know...? That....that didn't hurt me at all."_

"_I__ don't see why I even kept you around? I don't see why I just didn't abort your pathetic self a long time ago? You're worthless. You'll never do anything or be anything. Worthless."_

A whimper escaped from the young cheetah along with the older Pyrite; the cuts on his body feeling as if they were on fire. _"Just worthless." _She dropped the knife, the blade clattering against the floor of the alleyway. Everyone else forgot their fears as their mental nightmares dissipated. Each watched in exquisite horror to what the woman was doing to the poor spectral child as Pyrite, his arms wrapped around his midsection as he rocked back and forth on his knees felt the very same emotions and expressions as the childish cheetah had.

_"Now..." _Melissa said as she got off of her son,_ "Sit down in that chair over there like a good little boy and let mommy patch you up." _Despite the shock, little Pyrite did as he was told, and he obediently picked himself off of the floor and staggered over towards the corner."_Take your shirt off dearie; I need to see those cuts in order to clean them." _Her demeanor had completely changed, the angry, violent woman from before had been switched into a warm, and almost tender being. Something a mother should always be.

Pyrite lifted the shirt off of his head and tossed it onto the floor. Numerous scars criss-crossed his body, making the child look like a hardened war hero from the days of old. It was clearly obvious that this had happened before.

Many...

Many.....

Many times before.

Ivory shook his head and let a paw scratch his chin as the ghostly scene finished playing out in the alleyway. "That…was certainly unexpected." Scarlet doubled over on the alleyway concrete and heaved violently as the images replayed through her mind; her lunch spilling all over the dirty pavement. Blue's jaw clenched but he picked up his silenced firearm and trained it onto withering Gold despite the fact that he knew that the cheetah wasn't going to be too much of a threat any longer. Dorian kept his pistol trained on Gold as well but he soon dropped the pistol and placed it into his holster. "Stand back everyone... Blue...lower your weapon, for God's sake."

Indigo narrowed his eyes and started to protest, but Dorian had already walked in front of his line of fire, so he lowered the revolver but kept it on standby. It took a moment for Dorian to coax Pyrite onto his stomach, the cheetah still a gibbering mess as the ghost of his late mother hovered above him. _"Stay away from my son you filthy bastard," _the ghostly female cheetah screeched.

"Shut the hell up you abusive, sadistic bitch. Go somewhere else." Dorian retorted, looking down to Gold. The cheetah looked up at the other feline's face and blinked, quickly wiping away the tears that stained his red eyes.

"Finish it then," he whispered, lowering his head to the floor. "I've got nothing left." He looked to Dorian's paw, seeing the Glock as the key to his salvation by escaping the grips of Coal with the prospect of merciful death. "Do it!" Dorian shook his head, sucking in a breath.

"I…can't."

"Why the hell not?!"

"I just…" the ocelot blinked with a sigh. "I just can't."

"If you don't, Coal will. I can't go back to him a failure, not again! It's mercy to shoot me now than let me go back to him. I've got nothing left; my life is over either now, or after my body gives out to the pain of torture. Shoot me!"

Booker responded by holstering his pistol. Gold simmered with rage as he pulled out his own revolver and pointed it towards Scarlet who grew woozy from her stomach spasms. "Shoot me, or the lady dies! No more games; shoot me!"

"Just shoot him and be done with it, lawman!" Blue shouted to Dorian who ignored the outburst, bringing his paw up high before he buried the butt of his Glock into the back of Gold's neck, and immediately Pyrite lost consciousness. Booker looked to the unconscious young man on the floor and then back to the assortment of eyes boring holes into him.

"We'll take him back to the house." Blue scoffed as he took a step forward.

"Take him back? Did you forget the man tried to kill us just recently? He tried to kill you as well as Scarlet and me! We should put a bullet into his head while he is out. It would be the most mercy he would receive from the look of things."

"I'd think not." Dorian retorted. "Even if he said that he couldn't go back to Coal now that he's failed twice....we could persuade him to join our cause. He might really be able to help us out." Dorian snorted, "Besides, I already have three assassins living under my roof, so what's one more? Besides, he could help you pull off jobs...and that means more money for me to fix my house."

"Always thinking about others, Booker. Quite the little saint you've become."

"Well if there weren't any angels, then there would only be demons." Dorian retorted, "And succubi." He said, glancing at Scarlet as she wiped her chin clean of any vomit. Blue chuckled.

"While I admire your bravado, you'd best speak more highly of my sweetheart. Now," he glanced to the body on the floor. "So young...to think Coal ever saw potential in such an inexperienced mind." He nudged the tip of his shoe against the limp thigh of the cheetah. "Looks like something from a Clint Eastwood movie...must we really help this man simply because he had a bad experience with his mommy? It doesn't change the fact he nearly blew us all to kingdom come!"

"Hey. This is _Coal_ we're talking about." Tom said, holstering his Glock 18C, "Every extra gun we can get will help us out in the long run. And hell, this boy's experiences makes every bad day of my life look like a jaunt down the lane. And if I overheard your conversations correctly, it makes everyone's life story seem like a walk in paradise. Now..." The jackal muttered, "What do we do with you, Mr. White?"

The weasel gave a light grin. "If there was something you could do with me." He chuckled, but quickly stopped as he glanced back to the youth. "An interesting soul he was, but an unfortunate turn of events has left me with a grudgingly difficult ultimatum. Report back to Coal? Or leave the innocent boy's failure as if it never happened. Hmm...choices."

"I'm curious as to why you still work for him...you're one of the dearly departed aren't you?" Tom asked as he leaned up against the alley walk.

"That I am," his bone chilling tone rolled off his tongue. "Coal was one of my dearest friends in life. Think of it as a...personal obligation to him. Though I was taken from this world unjustly, I still hold the power to get the words across for those like me. I knew this would be invaluable to my dear friend, so I took it upon myself to assist him once again." He sat down, crossing his legs as he appeared to be sitting upon a flat surface, where he was merely hovering suspended a few feet in the air.

"It's the whole philosophy of "help me, help you." He quickly shifted, appearing directly behind Blue. The malamute's fur bristled on their ends as he felt the icy presence behind him, the light from his glowing blue irises were quickly sucked away.

"I am provided souls to practice on with my power, and Dear Coal requires these powers of mine."

"You do realize that you're just a tool?" Tom said, shifting his position slightly, "You might have been a friend, but you were expendable...and from the looks of it, you can no longer be expended." He shifted again, suspended upside-down in front of Tom's face, their snouts mere inches away from each other.

"An insurance policy," he cackled. "But I trusted Coal in that I was more to him than to simply be discarded once the well ran dry. He required my services for his well being after all. Think of me as his own personal doctor. Dr. White...a lovely ring to it."

He blinked out of existence once more, reappearing right side up in front of Tom this time. "His soul was one of the most interesting of all I've ever studied. It was as if it was walking a tight rope of life and death. His condition was very unstable back then, and I was able to mend his spiritual well being with a few of my readings. His body was functioning properly, just that his soul was...weathered."

"That's all well and good, Dr. White..." Tom scoffed, "But that still doesn't change the fact that Pyrite has failed. I know you have a gift, Mr. White, but even with it, there has to be a reason as to why you're still walking...err...this earth. There is something tethering your here..." He shook his head, "But that doesn't do us any good.

"Are you going to go back to Coal and report, or aren't you? If you are, then leave, and if you aren't, then also leave.....its hard...so hard seeing my wife again after all these years." Tom wiped a tear from his eye.

"It pains her as well, Tom. But she simply aches to get her message across to you." He inspected his claws before returning to meet the jackal's gaze. "What binds me to your world is of my own business. Coal isn't the only mystery this organization holds. And as for my decision...the boy can rest easy this day.

"I doubt Mr. Black's all seeing eyes would mind to be shut out for this one little moment, hmm?" His grin widened as he slowly lifted off the ground. "Take care now," and he dissipated into a plume of smoke until not a trace of him was apparent. Tom sighed, rubbing his eyes with his fingers as he turned back to everyone else. He grinned, trying to lighten the situation.

"Certainly something I'm not used to." No one spoke. "How about…a nice cup of tea to settle ourselves down, eh?" Lucius slowly shook his head, his mind replaying the scene of the mob of angry children that beat the hell out of him when he was a small boy.

"Tom…the data. We need to get this to headquarters to be properly decoded." Tom snapped his fingers and withdrew the rolled up papers from his coat.

"Capital idea. I'll admit, you're the faster here. I leave the task of transporting the information to our boss in your capable hands, old chum." The panther sneered as he took the offered papers.

"Very well, once everything is ready, I'll contact you in case we find anything." Tom saluted his alley and the panther turned to leave. "I'll keep in touch. And Dorian…" The ocelot turned towards the black feline at the sound of his name. "Thank you for the hospitality. I'll be sure to put in a good word with my employers of your services." Booker nodded with an exaggerated roll of his paw.

"Oh gee, that makes me feel _so_ much better. Thanks a bundle." Lucius bowed and stalked off down the alley. Dorian sighed, looking back to Gold on the alley floor. Shaking his head, he lifted the boy up and threw him over his shoulder.

"Yo, Balto," Booker called to Indigo. "You're a sled dog, carry golden boy here; I need some time to think for a minute." Blue looked to Blue, then to the limp Gold as he folded his arms and turned his head away.

"And why should I?" A grin spread across his lips as his irises darted back to Dorian's direction. The ocelot could not see the smile, or the probing irises for the dog had his back turned.

"You hear that?" Cupping a paw to his ear, Dorian heard the ominous sirens of police nearing their location. "That is the sound of many terrible things coming this way. They find us, we're dead. Now," he said, lifting Gold off his shoulder and shoving the boy into Blue's arms.

"Deal with him," he said with a grunt. As Blue grumbled and lifted the cheetah over his shoulder, the roar of a V-8 engine caught the attention of everyone in the alley excluding Gold who's parted lips let a sliver of saliva drip and plop onto the front of Indigo's black satin dress vest he worse over his blue button up shirt. The dog groaned as he leered at the unconscious boy's face and he forcibly shut the cheetah's mouth with a push of his palm swiftly upward under the yellow and white furred chin. Everyone froze, anticipating more danger.

"Dammit, now what's coming?" Dorian withdrew his sidearm as Tom followed suit, Scarlet clamping down hard on her jaw as her grip tightened on the handle of her knife, ready to throw it with deadly accuracy. Blue rolled his free wrist over, the body of the black polished thirty-eight caliber revolver sliding into his paw. Gold let out a groan as he licked his lips and flicked his right ear, the pointed tip poking and tickling the side of Blue's neck, to which the malamute sighed.

"Wait, I know that engine," Booker said, stepping forward. He heard a car door slam shut and his heart raced. "My baby?" He quickly rushed out of the alley and there, glistening in the golden sun's rays was his Ford Mustang, cheery red and hungering to be driven to its limits as it shuddered angrily like the wild horse it was named after. "There is a God," he shouted to the sky as he quickly lunged for the car and hugged himself against the hood.

"My baby, I'll never leave you out of my sight again. I promise." Patting the car like a long lost love, everyone in the alley stared at him, disarmed completely by his strange display of affection for a material object.

"Dorian?" The voice caught his attention as his heart climbed to his throat. He withdrew his nuzzling cheek from the cold hood of his car and he looked up, his eyes meeting the chocolate brown irises of Carmelita Fox.

"C-C-Carm…" he stuttered, unable to form words. The vixen tilted her head and quirked her brows as she gave a soft chuckle. "Carmelita!" Her eyes opened wider as she stood straighter, seeing the ocelot rush toward her and embrace her in a tight hug. "You're alive, you're safe! My God. And you've got my car; you've had it all this time. Jesus Christ is that a relief it wasn't stolen!" He swung her around with every word, the vixen struggling under his embrace.

"D-Dorian…glad to see you too."

"Ah, you've no idea how good it is to see you right now. I've had myself one hell of a time."

"I can see that," she said, glancing over his shoulder to Blue, Scarlet, and Tom standing in front of the rocky remains of the leveled building. Her heart began to race as she noticed the two assassins, slowly sliding out of Dorian's hug. "Care to explain before I blow both your heads wide open?" Blue chuckled.

"You do believe in forgiveness, don't you, Inspector?" She remained quiet as her paw instinctively reached for her firearm. Scarlet stepped forward, combing her hair back with a casual paw.

"So sorry we can't resume our little bout that we shared in the warehouse, but it seems we've all been pulled into the same bout as everyone." Carmelita's paw ceased it's path towards the handle of her magnum.

"So…you're saying you're good now?" Blue and Scarlet glanced to one another, then back to the vixen.

"Yes," they both exclaimed.

"What a load of bull-

"Carmelita," Dorian cut in. "It's true. They were double crossed by Coal…Colonel. They had nowhere else to go but defect to our side. I know they tried to kill us as well as Cooper, but they've been a very good advantage to our cause. Give them a chance; we need all the help we can receive.I don't like it any more than you do…but this is more need based than a want. Please, Carmelita, we need their help." Carmelita blinked as she thought about this for a moment. Finally, the vixen tilted her head upwards and gave a small smirk.

"Alright, Dorian…as long as it's a temporary cease-fire…I'll play along."

"Thank you, Carmelita." He hugged her again. "Speaking of Cooper, where is he anyhow? I've not heard much from him since…since _you_ left actually?"

"Well what sort of master thief would I be if the police were able to track my movements so easily?" The unmistakable voice caused Dorian's ears to perk up, and then suddenly fall flat. Holding in a breath, he turned around. Sly Cooper leaned against the alley wall, his arms crossed, cradling his cane as he gazed up to Dorian through the lowered brim of his blue hat.

"Cooper…" Dorian growled, his fists clenched as his knuckles flushed white under his fur.

"Constable Booker...glad to see you're doing well."

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_Author's note: Oooooh snap, son! Let's take a step back for a moment, yeah? Coal's gotten the balls to send his boys out to deal with our heroes in broad daylight now! Tom and Lucius have found a very interesting piece of info on the cigar smoking baddie, we get a glimpse of Gold's character a bit more deeply as our protagonists see another potential alley in their cause. Tom and Lucius...are they really on our heroes' side, or is there something else they want they're not telling them? _

_Thank you IgnorantOne for the intense ghostly scene involving Gold and his departed mother. Maybe it will score the cat some sympathy points, it certainly has for Dorian, who was highly against letting hitmen into his house, and now openly sheltering the young man. _

_Anyway, lots of things going down. And from what I gathered from my reviews, I bet you all want the next chapter out lightning fast to see how everyone deals with everyone now that the two teams finally met up. I promise a lot of awkward moments between former enemies, heated arguments between contrasting viewpoints, and a man-to-man between Sly and Dorian about their standings with Carmelita. Wooooooohooooooo, I can not wait to start on the next chapter! See ya around._

_Tex  
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	28. inFAMOUS

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_Author's note: Did you feel that? Feels like the world just got a little less...crowded...a little less brighter. Michael Jackson dead at 50 from a cardiac arrest, my God. They always go in threes, celebrities. Ed McMaun, Farrah Fawcett, and now MJ. May you rest in peace, Mr. Jackson. My step dad and I were thinking on the subject...what would compare to hearing about Michael Jackson, thee king of pop's death? I don't think anyone else, no movie, sport, show, music, any media celebrity could compare to the international fame of MJ and the sheer shock of hearing about him die. If you can come up with a celebrity who would have such an impact on the world if they died, let me hear it, because I don't think anyone could compare to Michael Jackson's death._

_A moment of silence...please._

_Alright, let's get down to brass tacks. Big chapter here, kinda the favorite theme as of late, isn't it? Well, my beta and I have been coming up with lots of ideas for the new chapters and we gotta fit em all into the next chapter, cuz we love you all so very much and we're cool like that, and you wanna give Tex a cool one hundred million dollars. Well, like I said, long chapter, so sit down, relax, and pop in your old Jackson 5 albums. So... in the immortal words of Michael Jackson "Don't stop till you get enough." _

_And if you're the observant type, yes the title for this chapter "inFAMOUS" is a nod to Sucker Punch's latest PS3 exclusive, inFAMOUS. It's a good game, go check it out._

_Tex_

_Fun Fact: The album Thriller is the best selling album in the world, estimated selling 49-109 million copies worldwide. I know I got one sitting around here somewhere.  
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**Chapter 28**

**inFAMOUS**

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**H**e stood glowering over the defeated form of the infamous thief, his neck snapped like a twig as Dorian's fingers twitched with a killer's lust for violence. At least, that's what he envisioned, shaking his head clear of the dark thoughts as his fists clenched and his shoulders locked in place. Sly Cooper leered at the Constable defiantly from the shaded brim of his blue hat, his jaw muscles hard as rock as he clamped down hard on his fangs. His demeanor was more composed than the ocelot's as he continued leaning against the alley wall, his arms crossed over his chest. All was quiet as everyone eyed the pair, anticipating something to happen.

Nothing happened. Sly pushed off the wall and looked to the damage the group of animals had caused before Carmelita and his arrival. Raising a single brow, he nodded his head in acknowledgment and then turned back to Booker. "I thought you officers were known for subtlety," he stated, the feline's ears lain flat against his head as he hissed out a breath through his nose.

"Don't look at me. You wanna berate the guy who leveled that building, talk to pretty boy over there." Sly found that he was more pleased with meeting sight with Blue than he did with Dorian. Strange considering the malamute almost killed him what seemed like a lifetime ago. The dog, seeing Cooper look to him, forced a smile with narrowed glowing ice blue eyes.

He then noticed Scarlet, the vixen an impossibility to not recognize. The impossibly beautiful woman was just as pleasing to the eyes as he remembered, his mouth suddenly becoming dry as she locked gazes with him and gave a quick wink. The raccoon then looked to the gold furred jackal, his paws shoved into the brown slash pockets of his long trench coat, the belt sash hanging loosely untied at his sides. Sly glanced back to Dorian, then brushed passed the feline and walked towards the sandy colored animal. "I know everyone else around here, but who are you, another freedom fighter picked up to join the cause?"

Tom responded with widening his already warm grin on his face as Cooper acknowledged him. "You could say that, old boy." The raccoon was caught surprised by the animal's accent.

"You with M.I.6 there, pal? That hardware of yours doesn't look like anything police would carry." Tom cleared his throat and glanced down to the gun strapped to his left side.

"Very observant of you, Mr. Cooper, you know your guns." The raccoon shrugged.

"I've had more than my fair share aimed at me during my time. And you are?" Tom bowed with a paw placed on his chest politely.

"Agent 33. A tad too robotic for my taste, so please, call me Tom." Sly quirked a brow in confusion but offered a paw, Tom taking it and giving a hardy shake. "And no, I'm not with M. I. 6, a smashing guess though. But believe you me, if they knew; almost every agent in that organization would most likely come join who I work for faster than you could say 'Big Ben'."

"So…who do you work for?" Dorian shook his head and scoffed.

"Good luck finding that out, he won't tell us and he's been with us for months now." Cooper looked back from Dorian to Tom once more. The jackal shrugged with a grin. Scarlet fidgeted anxiously with her fingers as she glanced around.

"As warm as this whole family reunion is becoming, could we perhaps get things moving along? I'm most likely needed back at Madam Francois' store and all of us need to get out of here before more law enforcement arrives." Tom nodded in agreement.

"Capital idea. We can all get better acquainted at Dorian's estate." He looked to the red muscle car parked on the side of the curve and furrowed his brows. "This…won't carry all of us, thank God for Blue's Cadillac." Dorian stepped forward and stood beside his car.

"It's been months since I've driven this, I'm taking my Mustang, naturally." He then looked to Carmelita, his expression softening up considerably. "Carmelita, you're more than welcome to ride with me back to my place." Cooper's ear twitched to the comment and moved his irises towards the Spanish vixen. She looked back to the raccoon, then to the ocelot, Cooper growing anxious as he found her actually thinking about whether or not to accompany him. He sighed and twirled his cane for a moment, grasping it in his paw.

"Carmelita, you go with him, I'll take a shortcut."

"Do you even know where I live, Cooper?" Dorian shot him a look to which the raccoon returned in kind.

"Oh I'm sure I can figure it out for myself. I promise to be there to greet you when you arrive." The ocelot lifted his chin and flashed a mock smile to the raccoon as he climbed into his car, Carmelita hesitatingly pulling herself into the passenger seat. Blue quickly jogged towards the vehicle, lugging his unconscious cargo over his shoulder.

"Hold up just a minute, lawman." He pulled open the door and flipped Gold over his shoulder. "Hold this for me would you? You've got the necessary cargo space after all." He grunted as he shoved the unresponsive body behind the seats and pat down the shoulder of the seat Dorian was in. "Much appreciated. I'd hate to have to carry that man with me all the way back to my car, in broad daylight of all times." Booker glared to him, then turned back to glance at Cooper.

"Let's say I get to my house before you,"

"A guy can dream I guess."

"Oh you're funny. But if I get there first, you'll be laughing all the way to the big house." Cooper cocked a brow in interest.

"You get there first…you throw me in jail? Hmm…I like it. And if I win?" Dorian shrugged.

"What do you want?"

"Probably nothing I couldn't already afford or just take myself from you…but perhaps..." Cooper rubbed his chin for a moment in thought. Finally, snapping his fingers, a grin crossed his lips. "You let Carmelita haul me off instead." Both Booker and Carmelita blinked in surprise as everyone else stared to the raccoon. Sly folded his paws behind his back and awaited a response.

"What is there to lose? I win; I throw your ass in personally. You win; Carmelita gets to tag and bag the criminal she's been after since the start of her career."

"A deal then?" He held out his paw to Dorian, the ocelot grumbling as he had to climb out of his car, pulling out the keys as he set the parking brake. He stepped towards the raccoon and grasped his paw, giving a threatening squeeze. The master thief kept a defiant smirk on his lips as he glanced to Booker's paws for a moment, and then quickly looked back into the ocelot's face.

"Agreed," he growled. They withdrew paws, Dorian starting for the car. "Ready?" He shook his head and chuckled as he watched Cooper stand facing one of the alley walls. "You'll never get there quick enough even if you _did_ know where my house is. You screwed yourself, raccoon."

"Ever read the story of the tortoise and the hare, Constable? Perhaps you should take its moral into consideration. Don't overestimate yourself or underestimate an opponent, it only makes your downfall all the greater."

"What downfall?" He whispered to himself as he reached for his keys he left in his pocket. His eyes quickly grew as he felt his fingers wrap around a ring of keys that weren't there. Sucking in a breath, he quickly shot his head back to where Cooper once stood, the grey animal clambering up the side of the alley wall.

"And one last thing, Constable," he shouted down from the roof's edge. "Never take your eyes off a thief's paws. Word to the wise." He chuckled as he withdrew the silvery keys, jingled them over the edge for a moment, and then tossed them to loop onto a railing high up on an iron fire escape. Booker growled and clenched his fists as Cooper dashed away and the ocelot sprinted out of his car, bolted up the fire escape, and grabbed his keys.

"I'll see ya at 28845 Carlo Drive!" Booker gritted his teeth as Cooper shouted back the Constable's address to him. Starting the car, Booker found his confidence dwindling as quickly as the raccoon was sprinting down the length of buildings. All the horsepower anyone could ask for, and no room to maneuver as pedestrians crowded the area, looking onto the disaster Blue had caused with the leveled building as police cruisers weaved through the streets in the opposite direction. Carmelita watched her furious partner clench his fists on the leather of the steering wheel and sighed.

She placed a paw atop of his and tenderly rubbed her fingers across his knuckles. "Calm down," she spoke slowly. "Ringtail's intimidated by you, this is merely something for him to get to me before you do." Booker looked to her, finding it the only thing he could do since traffic had become so congested and he looked on with a befuddled expression.

"He knows I'm…" She interrupted him with a finger to his lips.

"He saw us kiss that evening we shared, do you remember?" He shook his head slightly as he pulled over onto the curb, forgetting about the raccoon and their race completely.

"How could I forget? Carmelita…I don't like him, especially not around you. He's a criminal after all; here I thought you'd be the last person I'd need to explain this to." She nodded and placed a paw onto his knee.

"I understand, Dorian. Things have been screwed up lately with all this. Ever since we went to that God damned hardware store." Dorian burst out laughing.

"That seems like decades ago." She nodded again, smiling to see him laughing.

"Listen, Dorian. We both know our views on criminals…hell, you saw me ready to slap the cuffs on a jay-walker on your first day as my partner. But Sly…despite being a career criminal…there's an air of dignity in him. He's honorable, no other criminal have I ever met like him." Dorian sighed.

"You really care about him, huh?" She nodded, then placed a soft paw to the feline's cheek, turning him back to look at her.

"But I care about you too, Dorian. Don't let any of this put you off like I don't care about you anymore. I remembered the feelings I had the second that syringe was stabbed into your chest. You saved my life that night, Dorian. I thought you were going to die, I…didn't know what I was going to do if that happened.

But it didn't…and I'm so thankful for that." He hugged her tightly and then withdrew, bringing the car's V-8 engine to life with a roar as he pulled out onto the street, the traffic steadily improving. He sighed, relieved things were somewhat coming together finally after a long period of uncertainty.

"Hey…wanna listen to some music?" She remained quiet as she looked at him, giving a small smile as she nodded. He gave a grin and turned on the radio.

"…_and if you're just tuning in, Downtown Paris is simply in chaos as a four story parking structure has just been leveled." _The female reporter's voice caused Dorian and Carmelita to flatten their ears as he fumbled with the radio once more, desperately trying to find another station that wasn't covering the destroyed building. Giving in, he shut the radio off and they rode in silence, all the way to the ocelot's home. He expected Sly Cooper to be standing on the porch, awaiting their arrival, but the pair was amused to see he was nowhere to be seen. Giving an_ hmm_ in thought, Dorian parked the car on the driveway of his small house and got out, Carmelita following him up to the door.

He noticed the dark blue Cadillac taking up the front half of his driveway and assumed everyone else was at his home, yet all was quiet. Slowly turning the knob of his door, he pushed open the wood plank and entered his barren living room. "Huh," he blurted out. "Did God finally grant my prayer or something?" Carmelita stepped inside and looked around, sniffing the air about her. A tornado of scents bombarded her nose, yet no smell was strong enough to signal that anyone was in the living room or the corresponding kitchen.

Then, her nose twitched to a wafting breeze that caressed her nostrils with a fresh scent. Her ears perked up to a creak from upstairs as did Dorian's ears as he narrowed his gaze and withdrew his firearm. "Think Coal left someone here to greet us?" Carmelita pulled out her shock pistol and cupped the bottom of the handle with her left palm, following Dorian slowly up the staircase.

"Wouldn't put it by him. I hope the others are alright, wherever they are." Another series of noises assaulted their ears as the pair slowly crept closer through the upstairs hall. The feline recognized the sounds to be originating from the closet and he pressed his back against the wall to the left of the small room. Carmelita took the right side, reaching for the handle and grasping the brass knob tightly in her fingers.

She looked to Dorian who looked to the red vixen and she sucked in a breath, mentally counting to three as she tore open the door and the two quickly pointed their guns into the closet. "Freeze!"

Their shouts were interrupted as both animals drew back in disgust. "God dammit!" Indigo Blue's bare back went ridged as he raised his face out from the canyon of Scarlet's bosom. He slowly turned his head toward the unannounced visitors. Scarlet gasped, her paws still hugging Blue's head as her pants were pulled down to her knees, Indigo's paws clutching the strap of dental floss the vixen called underwear.

"Dorian!" Scarlet shouted as she panted, her chest rising and falling in hypnotic rhythm. Blue hugged her torso, moving his tail to curl up as far as it could in an attempt to cover Scarlet.

"Dammit, get the fuck out of my closet!" Booker holstered his pistol and shouted, pointing a wicked finger in erratic directions.

"A knock would have been nice, lawman!" Blue kept Scarlet covered as he craned his neck to look back at the feline and other vixen.

"I said get the fuck out! Don't make me drag you out." He grimaced, trying to avoid making eye contact with Indigo's backside as his entire nude form kept the officer at bay from entering the closet.

"Why not just let me finish?"

"OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT, OUT!!!!" Dorian stormed in, pulling the two animals apart and shoving Scarlet's shirt into her paws. Pushing both animals out, Blue tumbled to the floor from the shoving and landed flat on his back, his head resting directly under Carmelita. He hummed in approval of the view of the vixen as he cocked his brows in a suave curve. Someone walked onto his stomach as a heavy foot buried into his gut and the air rushed out of his lungs.

Dorian shouted, herding the two animals out from the hall. "Every damn time, every damn place I look, there you are. I can't turn my back for a second before you two steal away into some little nook and cranny to screw!" He kept chasing them away, not really thinking where to lead them as he simply wanted to continue yelling at them. "Get a fucking hotel room, how hard is that?! Or go do it somewhere else!

"An alleyway, a dumpster, in the middle of the wheat fields outside, anywhere else for the love of God!" The sound of the front door opening caused everyone in the room to freeze as Tom and Sly entered the house. The jackal who held open the door stood completely still in the doorway as Sly peeked over the gold furred animal. Blue looked down to his genitals and quickly cupped his paws over them, Scarlet quickly trying to pull on her shirt. Tom looked back from the naked pair, to Dorian, to Carmelita.

Then back to Blue and Scarlet, then looked over his shoulder to Sly. The jackal shut his eyes and sighed, slowly shaking his head. He walked into the house and strode right up the staircase. "I'll be in the study," he muttered under his breath. Sly watched the animal depart, and then back to the assortment of mammals still in the living room. He was about to open his mouth until Dorian took a step forward and jabbed a finger in his direction.

"Not one word." The raccoon slowly closed his mouth and grinned, blinking as he glanced to Carmelita. The vixen gave him a sidelong glance with a sort of apologetic expression on her face.

"I was going to say," he said, clearing his throat. "Congratulations on beating me here, guess you'll haul me off to prison now, hmm?" The ocelot blinked to Cooper's statement and turned to Carmelita. He shrugged to the vixen and then looked back, Cooper offering his wrists out to the feline for him to cuff him. He shook his head.

"You're Carmelita's case. Let her drag you in." He seemed to look at the vixen with pleading admiration, as if truly wanting her to slap the cuffs on him and haul him away. Eyes were on Carmelita as everyone waited for her to take him away. She drew in a breath and shook her head.

"Even if I wanted to right now…I can't. You've not done anything wrong since you left Interpol. If anything illegal involving Sly Cooper had happened, I would have heard about it. And lucky for you, that pardon Chief gave you when you were commissioned is still in effect. As far as we all know…Sly Cooper has a clean slate as a private citizen."

"But…but…" Booker stammered, fumbling through his thoughts for a counter example. "He was impersonating an officer of the law, it was all a façade. You're going to let that giant lie just disappear?" Cooper shrugged and gave a chuckle.

"There was no impersonation. I was Constable Cooper; I have a badge, a file, everything every other officer had. I used my real name, not take someone else's badge and pretend I was them. I was an actual peacekeeper…just a little more unique in the way I was recruited." Booker drew back, thinking.

"So that means…that means even if I did decide to take you to prison…they wouldn't lock you up." He then shot a glare back to the raccoon. "You bastard, you set me up for that this entire time, didn't you?" Cooper bowed, pulling off his cap and placing it over his heart.

"And you thought 'Sly' Cooper was just a cool name, eh?" The thief had done it; he managed to impress the Constable. He truly was as infamous as he was made out to be in the drawers of files dedicated to him back at headquarters.

**

* * *

**

Later that day, things had only gotten more out of hand than anyone would have liked. Whenever anyone had asked Tom what he and Sly were doing before they arrived, the jackal simply smiled and returned with a new retort. "If it doesn't concern you, why worry about it?" He nodded his head and took a sip of his steaming cup of tea. Dorian felt congested.

He had to get out of the house for a minute, all these people in one place, the tension was just bubbling out like an active volcano. It was just a matter of time before it would erupt. Whenever he would look to Blue, he would shudder from the horrid memories of seeing the dog in full glory along with Scarlet. Tom, he was simply beginning to frustrate him to no end with his little riddles and calm demeanor. As for Sly…there really was no need for explanation.

He sighed, running his fingers through his hair, until an idea came to him. Quickly bolting off the couch, he ran to the kitchen. He smiled to himself for coming up with the idea at such a perfect time. Scarlet was passing by, hearing the clattering from within the kitchen as she began to investigate. She saw the ocelot bending down as he dug through the fridge.

She mused to herself as she raised a demur brow, eyeing the Constable's backside for a moment before she tiptoed up to the cat. "What's going on here?" Her question caused the cat to jump, he quickly pulled himself out of the fridge and stood up straight, quickly spinning around to look towards Scarlet.

"Don't…scare me like that." He clamped his jaw down tight and returned to the fridge. Scarlet glanced over him to see what he was withdrawing from the cold storage unit. She saw him clutch a bottle of wine standing on one of the racks and she hummed to herself.

"A special little picnic for you and a certain vixen, perhaps?" Dorian froze, and then continued grabbing things from the fridge. "I'm appalled, Dorian. Here I thought you only had eyes for me." The feline sighed and turned around after setting everything on the table.

"There's nothing between us, there never was, and there never will be. So get those little notions out of your head that I'm even a fraction infatuated with you, because I'm not." She lowered her brows, but held a smirk on her lips as she looked to the food on the table, Dorian arranging it accordingly as he searched for a basket. "How did you know it was for a picnic?"

"Men are so predictable." She sighed and inspected her nails, frowning to see that some of the red polish on her right index finger had chipped off the end. "Especially the handsome ones. If you've had enough experience with men as I have, you find it all the easier to read them. Women are so much more complicated."

Dorian chuckled and shook his head. "I've never heard a lady admit that they are the more complicated sex." She shrugged.

"Why lie? Men are easy to read. They want a beer and to stick their-

"I get it…and what is it that women want, Scarlet? Since you're an expert on the subject." She gave her chin a scratch.

"Despite popular belief that men have sex on the brain more than women, that's not true, neither is a lot of those silly little myths men make up about it. This is relevant because it deals with the age old goal for women since the turn of the century. Equality, women want to be treated equally as well as with the men. They don't want a dominate sex, they want each gender to have equal opportunity." Dorian nodded; his pace for constructing the picnic basket slowing as he took in Scarlet's reasoning.

"I get that, women have been fighting for equal rights since before America was ever discovered. But not all men are like that." Scarlet nodded, walking up to the ocelot a little closer.

"That's one of the reasons I find a connection in you, Dorian." The ocelot stopped his paws and glanced over his shoulder to the vixen. "It's because you're different. You're a stronger man because of it. I saw it in Blue, I saw it in Cooper…and now I see it in you.

"You're devoted, strong in will, and you're able to resist me. Not many men are able to do that, I find it so very attractive." She reached around and clutched the ocelot's belt as she stood behind him, another paw sliding over his back and neck. "I look for a man who's strong. Someone who'll take charge of the situation. Those men, who just melt in my paw, they aren't real men, not like you…"

"Thanks for the compliment," he said dryly.

"Women want that, a partner who'll walk beside them, not ahead or behind them. They don't want to be dominated, or to dominate. The connection grows between mates in this way where they treat each other with the respect each deserves. That's what helps a relationship grow, each member benefitting from their mates, satisfying each other's needs."

"Glad to hear it. Now stop trying to undo my belt." She grabbed him and quickly flipped him around, pressing her heaving chest against his as he leaned back over the table.

"You are a tease, Dorian," she sighed with a seductive air in her voice. "You want to make me beg? I can crawl on all fours for you if you'd like."

"Scarlet…I'm warning you. I don't think Blue would approve of this either."

"Are you the strong man I was led to believe or not? I love men like you, Dorian. You're the type of man who's fierce, yet so, so passionate. You don't just make love, you give love life, you make it blossom and make it your own. I want a man who'll take charge, to fight to be on top for a change and to grab my hips and make me theirs for that fiery, ecstatic moment."

"And I really want you to get off me," he said, the vixen slowly sliding off his chest.

"Yes, play hard to get, Dorian. The challenge will make it all the more wonderful once I finally sink my claws into you. Then you'll be mine, I'll be yours."

"I think you need serious help. Now…leave me alone right now, alright?"

"So, you mean to tell me that kiss meant nothing to you?" The ocelot blinked and looked up from his basket.

"I won't lie…it was nice. I was frustrated; my nerves were shot from everything that's been happening alright?" He turned back to her. "Don't think too much into it, alright? We could never work…you've got Blue, go be with him."

She flattened her ears and decided to end the conversation. Folding her arms, she looked to the floor and drew in a breath. Then, turning around, she quietly walked out of the kitchen, throwing another glance over her shoulder to Dorian. She stopped quickly as she ran into a solid form, gasping in surprise as she looked up. "Indigo," she breathed.

The dog looked down to her with probing eyes and licked his lips. "Where have you been?"

"I was…sharing a conversation with Dorian in the kitchen. That's all."

"You sure do like to talk to the Constable, what is this sudden change of heart about our good host?" She huffed and turned away.

"He's being generous, Blue. The least you could do is show a little appreciation."

"I'm paying for his damned basement aren't I?" He took a step towards her and placed his paws upon her shoulders. Leaning down, he whispered into her ear. "You are spending quite a lot of time with the ocelot. What is it you both _really_ talk about?"

"Nothing you would care to know." He blinked and drew back. "How long have we been together, Indigo?" The dog thought for a moment.

"Almost ten years now…"

"Mm hmm, and tell me…how do I take my coffee?" The dog fumbled slightly as he tried to come up with a solution.

"With cream and sugar of course, because you're so sweet." She sighed and shrugged off his paws.

"I take it black, Indigo. You'd have known that if you cared to ever actually talk to me."

"We're talking right now aren't we?" He shrugged in frustration. She shook her head and walked away from him. "What's the point in all this?"

"You just don't understand, Indigo."

"Not like Dorian does, hmm?" She gave a silent nod and continued walking away from him. The dog looked back to her departing form, then to the direction of the kitchen. His fist clenched hard as his body shuddered. Clamping his jaw down tight, he glared with ominous glowing blue eyes as he slammed the side of his fist against the wall.

He was thankful he hit the stud in the wall; otherwise he would have left a noticeable crack in the wall for the ocelot to badger him about.

* * *

"C'mon, Carmelita," Dorian coaxed the vixen outside as he climbed into his cherry red Mustang.

"Dorian, why the rush all of a sudden?"

"Oh, I just thought you'd like to get out of the house right now. I know I would, too many people there crammed in that small house. I'm gonna go nuts if I don't get out. I was hoping…you'd want to come with me." He nodded to the vixen. "Alright...come on, Carmelita."

Dorian smiled, jingling the keys in front of him as he did his best to conceal the picnic basket behind his legs. "Let's go for a ride, just you and me." Carmelita perked an eyebrow and crossed her arms underneath her breasts.

"And why would I want to go for just a ride?"

"For old times' sake?" Dorian asked. "I mean...I just got you back. I got my car back...it's only logical that I'd like to spend some time with you isn't it?" His ears fell against his head as he continued. Dorian's eyes drooped as he spoke.

"I mean...especially since you disappeared a couple months back...all I could think about was you. I mean...you had me worried sick. It's the least you could do, right?" He gave her a small smile, "Right? Besides, the weather is great." His smiled broadened when he took a step down.

"The sun is shining. And my baby has a full tank and 300 horses with everywhere to roam...why not?" Carmelita glanced over her shoulder for a moment and blinked, until finally deciding to climb into the passenger seat of the Ford.

"Alright, Dorian. I'll take you up on that."

"Great, thanks a bunch, I'm sure you'll like it." Pulling away from the curb, they started down the road, the ocelot shuddering with excitement to the comforting rumble of his old car again. They continued out of the city, farther toward the less hectic and crowded countryside. Dorian grinned and started to pick up the pace as they continued to drive further and further away from the city. The ocelot rolled both windows down and opened up the sunroof as he cranked on the stereo system and attached his MP3 player to the importer jack.

"I called in a favor from a guy I know in patrol...this road stretches on for a hundred miles....its straight for some portions and curvy in other portions...and I managed to make sure that we don't get "noticed" by other patrol cars." He grinned and kicked it into third gear as he rounded a curve that leads them to a straight away that was about fifteen miles long; the road heading through wheat fields. The speedometer was approaching 70 miles an hour, twenty over the listed speed limit, and then Dorian kicked it up to fourth gear, the needle approaching 90. The Mustang shuddered angrily like the wild horse it was named after as the MPH gauge continued to climb. Carmelita grew a little on edge the faster they were going, her grip tightening on the handlebar above her head.

Dorian watched her reaction and began slowing down, pulling the vehicle over in a dirt turn out. He smiled at her as she still clung to the handle. "You wanna give it a go?" His question caused her to quickly turn her head in his direction as she gave a blank expression. "C'mon, it'll be fun. Don't tell me all this time you had my car, you didn't enjoy driving it."

There was truth in his words, it was a nice car, and the vixen did find it to perform very well when she drove it. Reluctantly, they switched seats and she gripped the steering wheel tightly, glancing through one of the mirrors reflexively before pulling back out onto the road. "It's a high performance vehicle, and we've got this entire road to roam ourselves. Go on, Carmelita, let those horses roam." She bit down her lip in apprehension, until flipping the stick shift and the car exploded in acceleration. The ocelot flushed his back with his seat and an excited grin spread across his face as the motor's roar echoed through the two animals' ears.

The green valleys of the country rolled by quickly as she sped down the length of the strip of asphalt, the ocelot, looking to the vixen to see the excited gleam in her eyes, coaxed her to let loose and go as fast as she would like. "Go on, push the pedal to the floor, cut it loose, my baby's not been able to drive so fast in a long time, I can tell." She obliged him, the engine's roar sending a shiver down their spines as the wheels spun, gripped the road and they shot forward even faster. Dorian glanced out the window, looking farther into the distance as he spotted their destination steadily nearing them. "Alright," he laughed.

"Hate to say it, but you need to slow down here, we're coming up to our spot." The vixen glanced to Booker before switching back to the road and she began slowing down, the car taking a long distance of the road before it was finally able to stop from leaving such a reckless speed. They quickly made it to their destination that Dorian saw fit for a picnic. Carmelita glanced around suspiciously.

"Why did we stop?" He grinned and pulled the picnic basket from under his seat. She cocked a brow to his actions and leaned back in her seat. "I had a feeling there was more to it than just a drive through the country."

"Well, I thought to myself, why not share a nice meal with a great lady at a beautiful place?" She raised her brows but gave a soft grin as they both climbed out of the car, hiking up a small hill where Dorian pulled out a blanket, unrolling it and setting it on the grass. Unpacking their food, they sat down on the sheet. Pulling out the bottle of wine, Carmelita looked to the feline for a moment, but took the offered glass as Dorian filled his own glass of dark liquid. "It's really nice out here."

The vixen nodded. "I never really get a chance to go out this far from the city." She looked to the feline and smiled. "Thanks, Dorian. This is nice."

He leaned a little closer to her, sitting near her as he caught a whiff of her enthralling scent. He leaned closer, his chest light as a feather as he brushed his lips against her cheek. "Dorian," she quickly spoke, trying to lean away. He stopped, his cheeks burning.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. She looked to him and watched as his darting eyes fell on hers. He blinked, uncertain what was going on within the vixen's head. "I can't help this, Carmelita. I know you said you loved Sly…but, I can't just give up like this." She shook her head.

"I thought this wouldn't turn into something about Cooper. Dorian, I just wanted to share a nice afternoon with you."

"I know, I know," he shook his head, lowering it as he stared at the blanket beneath him. "But…I still think we need to talk." He leaned closer. "Carmelita, I don't like him around you. I don't trust him in the least." She sighed, anticipating almost every word he said before he ever thought it.

"Dorian…please."

"Just hear me out. Please, Carmelita…" She looked to him, his eyes pleading for her and she eventually nodded. "You love him, we all know this, but is it truly worth sacrificing everything for this man? He's a criminal, if you were to be with him, do you know what that could do to your reputation as an officer of Interpol? Your career would be at stake from everyone thinking you were harboring a fugitive."

"Just as you've done with Scarlet and Blue?" He drew quiet. The spotted cat ran a paw through his hair.

"Yes…you're right. I know I'm doing exactly what I'm asking you not to…but I'm not involved with them. Carmelita, I just want to see you happy. When the time comes where you can't protect the man from the law anymore…what will you decide? Will you save him, or bring him in? His life, it isn't a safe one."

"All these enemies he's made, the second you're with him, all those enemies put you in their sights along with him. I don't want to see you wound up dead because of him!" She closed her eyes, shaking her head.

"I told you before, Dorian. He's a good man, despite driving me insane at times. But he's honorable; he has dignity and a moral soul. I just wish you could see that in him."

"But what's to stop him from going past his codes of honor for another chance at thieving?" She shook her head again.

"He's promised me, he would never steal again. And he hasn't, not since the day he…"

"The day he left you…" She bit her lip down hard in frustration. "What's the promise of a thief worth, Carmelita? To me, it doesn't mean jack shit."

"Shut up!" Her snap caused him to stop, furrowing his brows as he looked to the floor. Licking his lips, he sighed.

"I'm sorry, Carmelita. I have to speak my opinion of him. He promised you…but how long will that promise last?"

"You talk like you know him, Dorian. You don't know a goddamned thing about him."

"Well why don't you just marry the bastard already?" His statement caught her off guard as she drew back and blinked in surprise.

"Dorian…it's complicated. I…I love Sly; a part of me always has and always will. At first…he was like an obnoxious little brother to me…teasing and taunting me and making my life a living terror to deal with. But I still cared about him; I still held feelings for him, my heart always skipping a beat whenever he would dodge a bullet or climb to extreme heights. Later, those feelings grew. I saw him grow up from a boy into the man he's become over the years I've been perusing him.

"I found myself falling for him, and the moment he convinced me of his amnesia…I saw an opportunity and I took it. I could never be with him the way he was…a thief, the opposite side of the law. God…it's so God damned frustrating." She sat forward, holding the sides of her head as she sounded on the verge of tears, choking them down with anger in her voice. "Why did it have to be this way? Why do things always have to be so damn difficult?"

Dorian reached up, leaning towards her as he embraced her with his arm, resting his head against hers. He nuzzled her dark curls with his snout and closed his eyes, enraptured by her powerful flowery scent. "The world throws obstacles at us…to test us I believe. It makes us stronger. Where would we be if everything was always handed to us, always right in front of us?"

"I remember, back a year or so ago. I was still in Stockholm, just about to finish up on a case I have been working on for almost two years. I decided to stay and finish it before getting my contract to be transferred to Interpol, instead of dumping all of that onto someone else who hadn't had everything memorized and down to key as I did. I was at the gang's compound, just about to kick the door in, and when I stormed the place, it was empty." He shrugged.

"Well…empty of anything living. All the members, even the high rollers were all dead, ripped to pieces and slashed to ribbons. As I reported in what happened, I saw someone fleeing from the scene. When I perused him, I caught a quick glance of him." He bit down his lip, trying to recollect his memories.

"He was a fox, light build, very fast. Sharply dressed in black clothing, he even dyed his red fur black. The whiff I caught off of him, he reeked of blood." He sighed, his shoulders dropping in unpleasantness. "Two years just went down the drain, all because of one hitman."

"So I delivered my contract and was heading for Paris, only to be stopped at the airport and detained and interrogated by Paris security, asking me why I wasn't in my proper jurisdiction without papers. I told them I was slated for the position, showing my papers and even a verbal confirmation. You know what they told me?" Carmelita felt her heart tighten up in a knot within her chest as she breathed through parted lips. "They told me Sly Cooper took my position as Constable in Interpol, when I had a contract that solidified my position while I could still finish my case, Interpol cuts through the red tape and gives my position to a damned criminal."

He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "I'm not jealous…I'm not vengeful or anything…not anymore. I'm just…disappointed that things went so different for me. I wonder…where would I be if I got the position I was promised? I would have been your partner ages ago…I could of…" He trailed off, shutting his eyes hard.

"I believe…we're molded by these series of events…this being one of those character shaping moments. Carmelita," he pulled back, looking at her as he wiped a drop of moisture with his thumb. "And struggling with these obstacles…it only makes the prize we receive for our troubles all the more rewarding." He sighed. "I may not…be rich or…good with words or…a world class thief of infamous renown."

"But I am one thing. I'm deeply in love with you." His heart throbbed in his chest, pounding so hard he thought his ribs would begin to bend forward from the pressure building up within his core. "The silence…how men always say the silent treatment doesn't faze them…well its total shit. It hurts…as deep as a bullet passing through your body it hurts." Holding in a breath, he let it slowly bellow out of his mouth as he continued to speak. "Listen...Carmelita. I...I'm not some fancy, suave', debonair world class thief. I can't run up pipes, slide on rails, or turn invisible."

"I don't have some fascinating family lineage that I can recount, nor do I have billions of Euros sitting at the bottom of the sea. I can't talk my way out of precarious positions, nor can I charm my way into getting what I want." The ocelot sighed and looked at the vixen. "I'm not Sly Cooper." This seemed to shock the woman at the statement, but she kept silent as he continued.

"I'm just Dorian Booker, a Constable at Interpol, surrounded by the best and the brightest the police forces of the world have to offer. I don't have a lot of money. I don't have a great grandfather who was known to steal from the richest people in the world. I'm a decent shot and a great friend to all of those who are willing to be mine. I'm dependable, a constant. In any given situation, you can always count on me to react accordingly."

"I'm not making myself out to be a saint...but I'm not a thief. I work hard for my money instead of stealing from those who work hard for theirs. I'm not above the law, I merely uphold it, and I like what I do."

"Why are you saying all of this Dorian?" Carmelita asked.

"Carmelita...you already know the answer. I don't remember much...but a couple of months ago I apologized to you...I just let everything flow out. My thoughts on everything, from you, and to how selfish and insensitive I was being. I..." Dorian paused for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. "I think I said I loved you, Carmelita.

"No...I know I said it." Dorian took a step closer and grabbed Carmelita's paw and brought it up to his chest; the vixen able to feel his thumping heart. "I'm not Sly Cooper...nor do I ever want to be. I have a decent house, a fast car, a stable, well paying and fulfilling job...but most of all...I have a partner who I know I can count on every day. Through thick and thin, I know I have you by my side, Carmelita." Carmelita's cheeks flushed at the contact, and she continued to listen.

"I would like to think I know you, Carmelita...but the sad fact is that I don't know as much as I would love to." He paused again, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "I know...that night when we kissed...you felt it too. That spark that set our hearts aflame when our lips met is still burning deeply within your heart. I...I can see it in your eyes, Carmelita."

"This feeling...this wonderful feeling since that night has yet to disappear from my body...and when I feel it begin to dim, all I have to do is think back to who I'm fighting for...and I immediately feel at 110%. You and I collide, Carmelita. You....me....we mesh together. Not only as partners, but as friends as well. That night...the singing, the dance...all of it seemed like something out of some fifteen-cent romance novel you can find on any bargain bin at the bookstore...except for the simple fact that it was real."

Another gentle squeeze of her paw brought her attention back to the ocelot's eyes. "This is real, Carmelita. Not some schoolhouse puppy love or high school crush. This is everything I thought love would feel like...and it excites me to no end. This heart of mine is beating so quickly that I feel like it would leap out of my chest...and right now, the only thing that's keeping it in right now is your paw, Carmelita.

"I know it in my heart that when I say I love you, that I mean it with everything I am. I love you, Carmelita Montoya Fox. You're the only woman who can keep my heart beating...so please...Carmelita...don't let go." He whispered, releasing her paw, and was pleased when Carmelita kept it placed firmly over his thumping heart; his eyes shimmering with soft tears as he gazed into Carmelita's own rich chocolate orbs.

"Dorian…" Carmelita shook her head as she looked to the feline. "I…I…"

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, Carmelita. I could never judge you, or ever force you to say something you don't mean. I understand I sort of sprang all this on you at once and I probably shouldn't have, but…I just thought it would be important that I tell you this." He closed his eyes and hugged her tightly and he smiled as he felt her paws on his back, hugging him in return. "C'mon…I think we should get back to the house now."

She nodded; pulling out of his hug and standing up, helping him fold up the blanket. Packing everything away, they walked down the hill and climbed back into the Ford. She looked out the window and watched the countryside rolling by her. Looking back to the ocelot, she leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss on his cheek. He drew in a breath as his fists tightened around the steering wheel, his cheeks growing warm as he gave a lazy smile.

* * *

Pyrite groaned to the throbbing that pulsated in the back of his neck from Dorian's previous strike against him, but remained quiet as he sat at the table in the feline's home, his brows cocked in a glare as he glowered at the sandwich he violently tore at with his fangs. Dorian watched the young man for a moment, smiling. "I think he's coming along well," he said sarcastically. Blue gave a fake fang filled smile in return from his spot on the couch. He ocelot sighed with a smirk on his lips as he slumped farther into the couch, looking to the rehabilitating youth.

Sly Cooper walked down the small staircase quietly, looking towards Pyrite who was angrily muttering to himself. The raccoon passed everyone and nodded to Blue as he stood by the couch. "So, Blue," the thief leaned forward slightly, the sound of Cooper's voice causing Dorian to sit up a bit as he didn't even hear the raccoon approach. "Since you're with the good side now, you'll be going up against Coal." The dog nodded.

"Did you come up with that conclusion all on your own? My goodness."

"So tell me…when it's all over, then what?" The malamute blinked to the statement.

"Then what?"

"What will you do when it's all said and done? You don't have an employer anymore, you've lost everything Coal supplied for you. Money, international travel, numerous connections with the underground community, multiple safe houses, anonymity protection, medical compensation. What's your plan for the future?" In truth, the dog never thought beyond the point of actually killing Coal.

The thief made a valid point, what was there left for the canine? His old life was gone, and he would have to simply accept the fact that nothing will go back to what it used to be. So, what then? What was left for him? "When Coal's dead," the dog sighed, shaking his head.

"It's over…Scarlet and I take back our accounts, find a lovely home on some secluded section of land, maybe an island. After that…" He hesitated as he mulled over the mental image of his and Scarlet's future. His representation of the perfect life was troublesome, considering he never really knew what exactly the "perfect life" image was to people. To him, it was doing what he enjoyed and getting paid handsomely to do it, but that dream was far away from him to ever recover now. "After that…dammit all, I don't know."

"Whatever it is ex-killers do during retirement. Christ knows they aren't playing golf, I'm sure. Who knows…Scarlet's always thought about settling down." He stopped again, pondering with a paw to his chin. "She may never say it, but I know she would probably want children…"

"That's…very mature of you, Indigo." Dorian sat up straighter in his seat, truly admiring Blue's change of heart since he was first acquainted with him. "I would never have thought of you to have the capacity for something like that." Blue scoffed, snorting a loud blast of hot air through his nostrils.

"Children are the last thing I would want. Please, lawman. Do you honestly picture me a father to some little rambunctious rugrat? A father? Me?"

He threw his head back and chuckled. "Next thing you know, I'll be planting a nice garden out in the front yard and phoning up all my buddies to pop a few beers and watch the game. My God, Booker." He continued laughing to Dorian's complete bemusement, the ocelot looking back to Cooper. The thief cocked his head to the side and with furrowed brows, stated.

"I would give everything I have to have a life like that…" Booker blinked, thinking the same thing to himself. He would love more than anything to have a normal life. A life like in those fake worlds of sitcoms, married to a beautiful woman, father to their children. A nice uneventful job, living in a peaceful community where his only worries would be if his mother-in-law would be paying an unannounced visit.

There was a life…a life he would never know. "Cooper," the ocelot spoke from his seat. Sly looked to the feline, finally acknowledging him.

"Yes, Dorian?" The feline stood up, miffed by the way to thief used his first name in acknowledgment. Booker looked to Blue and then back to the thief.

"I'd like to have a private conversation with you." Cooper raised a brow as he folded his arms across his chest, a paw moving up to stroke his chin. He was intrigued by the offer and nodded.

"Of course, where would you like it?"

"Upstairs, the bedroom." Cooper nodded and followed the feline up the flight of stairs and entered the bedroom. Closing the door behind them, Dorian turned around. "We can both be sensible gentlemen about all this."

"I do not doubt it. What did you want to talk to me about?" The feline licked his lips and continued speaking.

"I want you to stay away from Carmelita." The raccoon smiled, expecting such a statement the moment Booker requested the private audience.

"I thought you said we could be sensible."

"I'm serious, thief. I want you to stay away from her."

"What if I don't agree to that? Can't we make a compromise to our dilemma? Say…one where I stay with Carmelita and you…can do your own thing, yeah?" Dorian sighed and clenched his paws tight.

"Think about it for a moment, Sly. What do you see in a future with her and you? I see a strained relationship, a cop married to a criminal? Please, she wouldn't be able to protect you forever. There will be a time where she would have to choose between her job, and her husband.

"What kind of man would put someone like Carmelita through such a thing? You both would be fighting each other, either in careers or in your relationship every step of the way." Cooper shook his head, his arms still crossed as his fingers still tapped against his chin.

"I've already come to the conclusion that I would give up my extralegal ways for her. I've promised her this numerous times before, and I intend to follow up that promise. You see me as some uncontrollable fiend with no morals to show for. That tells me something, it tells me you're just trying to create this image of me to try and feed to Carmelita in hopes that she would fall into it. Well, she won't, I've known her a hell of a lot longer than you have, and I let her know who I really am. My actions represent who I am."

"Bullshit, you've 'known' her through faking amnesia and exchanging flirtatious banter every time she pursues you for a crime. And your actions, have you not heard that stealing is bad?"

"I steal, yes. But let's be reasonable, every item stolen by me was from that of a true criminal, a real villain that police should be concerned with. Have I ever shot anyone? Have I ever murdered anyone? Have I ever mugged someone at gunpoint, or stabbed or shook down or extort or even threaten?

"And you call me a criminal. You don't even know what that word means, Constable." He shook his head once more and unfolded his arms. "All my actions against those criminals I stole from, it ultimately led to their downfall. Criminals who were thought untouchable by the law were rendered incapacitated by me helping to get the police through the sea of red tape and paperwork and thus throwing those criminals into the slammer."

"It's true," Dorian continued. "With the law, there are some obstacles. But it keeps us clear; it stops us from making poor decisions and bad judgment so that we can't ever have anyone wrongly accused. The funny thing is, whenever we receive a warrant, you're already there at the scene. We could have captured ever last one of them without your help, criminal."

"Every last one? You think you could have taken them all down? Please, you're a filler, they needed a last minute replacement for me and who do they call? The guy who's least needed around here. Congratulations."

"My reports were never filled with acts of violence or destroyed property. You think yourself my superior as an officer? And I never even went to the academy." He paused, folding his arms up again and closing his eyes. "Carmelita doesn't need a partner, certainly not some raging lunatic."

"I was slated for that slot a year before you came along!" Dorian snapped. "The only reason you got it was because someone high up pulled some strings to get you in...Thanks to your wonderfully talented amnesia act. Congratulations. Do you know how stupid everyone at HQ feels?"

"A lot of those people trusted you, and everything you put up for them was just a facade. And yes, I had some issues, but I'm past those now, and I'm a better man for it. And you're right, Carmelita doesn't need a partner, but what she does need is someone she can relate too. Someone who isn't on the opposite side of the law."

"I didn't ask to be part of Interpol, I saw a chance to be with Carmelita and I took it. The fact I became a cop is completely irrelevant. I would have been more content, a regular guy in a working class family, waiting for Carmelita to get home from work after worrying if she would be walking through that door or not every evening. She has someone to relate to, she always has. I've always been there for her, listening to whatever she needed to say and supporting her whenever she needed it."

Dorian shook his head. "None of this really matters. It all comes down to choice. I've spent nine months with Carmelita...and those have been the best of my life. Despite the fact that I had to save her from numerous attempts on her life...this is the first time I've really ever felt alive."

"I love this feeling...and I only get it when Carmelita is around. I love Carmelita Montoya Fox...and I've already told her...it all comes down to her choice." Sly scoffed at this.

"Make her choose? You think that's the way to do it? You think everything's going to be all peachy keen as she plays 'enie, meanie, minie, moe' for us? It isn't fair, not for her, not for either of us."

"Do you see any alternative? Know this, if there is one thing in this world that I'm sure of, criminal, it's this. This is my resolve. A chance at a life of happiness with Carmelita Montoya Fox is what's been keeping me going. I've never felt more sure about anything in my entire life."

"And I've never held such affection for any other person in this world than her. And she knows this, I let her know this. She needs me, just as I need her. Her hard exterior is all anyone ever sees in her, but I see the gentle, lonely woman in her who needs companionship." Dorian threw up his paws and shrugged.

"It's all down to choice, to fate as it were." Cooper leered to the animal. "But if I were her…I wouldn't take the man who lied to me all this time and then left me with that little bit of unfortunate information to mull over." The raccoon's glare intensified.

"...I had to," he whispered somberly. "In order to make sure she would be safe. Until I was positive Clockwerk wouldn't come and kill her just as he killed my family years ago. The child in me died that night. Imagine what the sight of my wife and kids butchered in front of me would do. There's never been any others...only her. She was the only one I ever wanted. I left her because I love her, what would you have done?"

"Hey, I may not have been put in such tough situations, but if you're going to complain about the hand you've been dealt, do it to Pyrite Gold...I'm sure he'll be more than happy to tell you how much his life sucked." Dorian sighed, "But I admit I would have done the same. However, I would have told Carmelita, and I would have let her know. You know how resourceful she is, Cooper, and she would have found out eventually. She's a great asset in battle, and she'd never put herself in a situation where she would become a liability."

"And do you think you're the only person who loves Carmelita, Cooper? You sure as hell aren't. All my life I've never wanted anything as much as I want her. And I won't let you take my angel away from me when I have a chance."

"Is that a threat, Constable?" The ocelot turned towards the door, speaking at the wooden portal, yet his words aimed directly at the bane of his happiness.

"It's however you take it, criminal. I'm an officer of Interpol, you an infamous thief. I'd keep an eye on me if I were you."

"If I were you, Constable," the master thief spoke with an unnerving calmness. "I'd be more concerned with my own well being." Dorian huffed in retort and walked out of the room, leaving Cooper alone in the bedroom to his own thoughts. "Carmelita shouldn't be put through this…it isn't fair to any of us." He sighed, walking out of the bedroom as well, closing the door behind him.

"So…you boys have a nice chat together in there?" Sly's ears perked up to a familiar elegant accent as it floated into his ear canals. Scarlet leaned against the wall to Sly's left, her firm rump pressed against the surface as her upper body leaned forward, her arms crossed under her generous bust as her posture gave the raccoon a bountiful view of cleavage. Her legs were exposed up just enough for the raccoon to catch a glimpse of the end of her thigh to the beginning of her butt.

"Scarlet," Sly sighed, rubbing his eyes frustratingly. "You're the last person I want to see right now. What do you want?" She pouted, pursing her lips in mock disappointment.

"And here I thought you'd be happy to see me. No need to be so hostile, lover." She pushed off the wall, placing a paw onto the raccoon's shoulder, to which Cooper tried to shrug off. "You and Dorian are trying to capture dear Carmelita's heart. My, my…what a rather wasteful experience." He sneered at her and brushed her away.

"And you'd be the better choice?"

"Well, why not?" She posed for him, stretching her arms above her head as she slid down the wall, arching her back to better pronounce her chest. "Is Carmelita really worth throwing all this away?" He was used to her advances by now, and the fact he was fully clothed this time around gave him a better advantage than their last 'friendlier' meeting.

"I told you before, Scarlet. You're nothing compared to Carmelita, not to me. Go bug Dorian; he could use a woman right about now." She giggled and pushed off the wall once more, flinging herself to him as she pressed against his chest like a wave crashing onto a rock.

"Oh, I already had a little talk with Dorian."

"Good, you two sound perfect together. Now leave me alone, will you?" She halted him, grabbing his shoulders and pinning him to the wall much like she had done in the short shower they shared together.

"You two are very much alike when you think about it. Both so strong…so determined." She slid a paw down his chest slowly as she spoke. "But...I find you very alluring. I love men who take charge, be assertive. Like I said with Dorian, I saw this quality in both of you." He pushed her off him and walked away, feeling her hovering by him like a fly buzzing around him. "We could be so happy together, you and me. Just think how wonderful our life could be. And I wouldn't ever put my needs before yours. You want to remain a thief, you can steal the Crown from the Queen of England if you so wish." Sly chuckled.

"Been there, done that." She blinked at him, but continued.

"Think how lovely we would be together…think of the sex, how amazing it would feel. I could do things your precious little Carmelita wouldn't dream of. All your wildest dreams come true. Be as rough as you'd like, not so cautious with fragile little Carmelita. Think how beautiful our children would be, the next generation of master thief."

He stopped, listening to Scarlet a little more intently. "You would…carry on the Cooper name? You would approve of a thieving lifestyle from them?" She nodded, hugging his shoulder as she nuzzled his neck.

"Just as long as you let me train our daughter on how to handle a knife." He brought a paw to his chin, scratching the grey hairs for a moment in thought.

"We would make an incredible team," he said, to which she nodded in agreement and gave a coo in delight. "Travel the world…or live wherever we wished. Stealing the most precious and challenging of objects to obtain."

"Yes…oh yes, doesn't that sound just wonderful?" He nodded.

"Yes…it does." He smiled, turning toward her. She raised her chin up to him, to which he placed a paw under her chin, leading her muzzle closer to his. "We could be quite the team, you and I. Only a fool would turn down having such a beautiful woman as their mate and partner in crime."

"Oh Sly…you could make a girl very happy." He nodded, and then just as she puckered her lips, waiting for his to brush against hers, he dropped her chin and walked away.

"Yeah, like that would ever happen in a million years." Her eyes shot open and the fur on the end of her tail fluffed up in annoyance. Licking her lips, she trembled slightly as her eyes flashed a sinister green. "Thanks for the offer, lady. But I've got an even better item to steal. Something you could never help me take."

"And what is that, you taunting bastard?" He turned back to her snap and smiled.

"Why, the heart of Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox of course." She narrowed her gaze to him, growling in frustration as she slammed a fist into the wall. Her paw stung to the impact, but she didn't care, sliding down the wall as she tried to choke down warm tears that began to bubble up from her eyes. The infamous thief…how she wanted to smother him…and yet, how she wanted to fry him to a crisp with an electrical surge till his skeleton jumped out of his skin. Cooper strolled down the length of the hallway, considering that maybe he had come off a little too rude to the vixen as he walked.

He hummed to himself as he brought a paw to his chin in quarry. "She did offer to help in the continuation of the Cooper line…" He saw his future with Carmelita, this was solidified in his mind. But she never did mention anything about helping in the continuation of the next generation of thief. Thousands of years…countless generations, and he would just end it like that?

He wanted children with Carmelita; this was for sure, the vixen already giving subtle hints that she herself wanted little pups of her own down the road. But, he knew she didn't want them to grow up like her father. So, would that be it? Would the Cooper name finally start to lose its infamy as the line of master thief throughout history? All those generations…would it be fair to them that Sly made such a choice?

He made the choice before, throwing away his lineage to be with Carmelita when he faked amnesia, but could he do it again? This time, each knowing full well they remembered everything as it should be. His eyes widened. Would she tell him to get rid of the Thievius Raccoonus, or to lock away his cane? He sighed, wondering just how more elaborate and frustrating this vicious cycle he saw himself in would become.

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	29. Secrets

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_Author's note: Took a little longer than planned, sorry about that. I never really know what to say with these little notes, always the usual. Thank you readers for enjoying the fiction and leaving kind reviews, thank you IgnorantOne for the great help in making these chapters, and...who else to thank? Um...my dog...my other dog...my little Buddha that I rub its tummy for good luck...um...my car...um...rubber bands for my hair...uh...shaving razors...deodorant...anyway, I'm very thankful and I'm sure there are other numerous objects and people who have influenced me and helped me create this story, so yeah, righteous, bonus, groovy, and all that other hip young lingo the kids are saying theses days. Peace out y'all. _

_Tex_

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**Chapter 29**

**Secrets**

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**C**old and numbing air bellowed out of the ventilation system of the large, mostly barren room. The right wall was composed of stainless steel lockers, baring serial numbers on each small door as the double doors swung open, pushed aside by a group of animals wheeling a stretcher into the room. "Mr. Black will not like this," a black canine grimaced, looking at the large dark bag that sat on the cart. The dog glanced to a feline and beckoned him towards him. "The boss better take a look at all this, personally. Notify him and ask for him to be present in the cold storage area."

The feline nodded and walked out of the chilling room. The dog looked back down at the bag and shook his head, a file of papers clutched in his cold, shaking fingers.

* * *

Coal grunted as he threw his open palm out, slamming into the punching bag and causing the bag to swing from its chain with an incredible physical force. Swinging his leg out, he caught the side of the bag, causing it to bend halfway as it flung around on its chain. Whirling around, he delivered another kick followed by a jab of his elbow and ending by shooting the rest of his arm out, his palm digging into the bag. He sighed, combing back the strands of his hair that slipped out of the small elastic band that kept it tied in a short tail that stretched down to right above his shoulders. He turned away from the punching bag, and then quickly turned around as he shot his foot out, slamming into the bag.

A knock at his door caused him to stop and turn back to the entrance, composing himself as he lit a cigar. "Come in," he said between clenched teeth. He struck a match and coated the end of his cigar with glowing embers as he took a long pull and slowly blew out the smoke. Mr. Kane entered the chamber, the secretary smiling calmly to his boss.

"Sir," he said politely. "I trust your session went well." Coal nodded, Kane unable to see the movement as the chamber was almost pitch dark.

"Quite well, although," he said, walking to the bag and unzipping the side of it. "I'm afraid to say that our friend didn't enjoy it as much as I had." As he unzipped the punching bag, a limp reptilian body pooled out onto the floor, battered and swollen with bruises and caked with blood. The limp form was unresponsive as Coal placed his foot against the lizard's cheek. The dark animal sighed.

"I find my list of dependable staff members to be growing thin, Mr. Kane." His secretary nodded.

"You'll be happy to know I have no intention of defecting, I assure you, sir. You've been most kind during my time here."

"Good to hear," Coal mused. "Now, what is it you wished to see me about?" He blew out another jet of grey smoke as he turned to Kane, the glowing end of the cigar the only thing the secretary could see in the deep blackness.

"There's…been an unfortunate turn of events."

"That so?" Kane nodded and continued.

"Mr. Donahue and his team have returned from the factory in Siberia where they are reconstructing Clockwerk." Coal quirked a brow to Kane's somber tone.

"And…?" The secretary bit his lip in apprehension.

"He…requests your presence in the cold storage room." Coal sighed, combing his black locks back from between his large pointed ears.

"Very well," he said between blowing out another stream of smoke. He looked to the lizard on the floor, blood slowly blotting the concrete around him. The reptile let out a wet, ragged cough, the only sound he had made the entire time within the chamber. Kane looked to the lizard on the floor and grimaced.

"Mr. Callaway…sir?" The dark animal nodded.

"Seems our good friend, Mr. Callaway was responsible for deserting his post on surveillance while our western post was reduced to smoldering rocks." Resting his foot against the reptile's cheek, Coal licked his lips for a moment as he moved his foot to rest against Callaway's neck, pressing harder until a snap echoed through the dark chamber. "Get someone to clean this place up, would you, Mr. Kane?"

"Y-yes of course, sir."

"I'll be in cold storage," and he departed, leaving Kane standing alone in darkness, with nothing but the stench of blood and death to grace his nostrils. Black pushed open the swinging doors and his body was immediately blasted with cold air. Everyone else in the room quickly jumped as they turned around, seeing Coal standing behind them. "Why is everyone so jumpy this morning?"

"S-sir,"

"Donahue…you requested I be present in cold storage." The dog nodded, bowing abruptly in politeness. "An unfortunate turn of events has transpired I was informed." The dog gulped down the burning lump in his throat as he took a deep breath.

"We returned from Siberia with our report after routine scouting of every station we have on the continent."

"And…what did you find?" The black canine beckoned Coal to the large bag lying on the table. Coal looked to Donahue, and then grabbed the zipper, anticipating what he was about to witness. Pulling the zipper down, the fabric parted down the middle as Coal pushed it aside, seeing the lifeless eyes of Kirill Mincov staring back at the dark animal. A wave of rancid odor wafted from the bag as everyone excluding Coal took an immediate step back.

Black stared at the husky's face hard for a moment before looking back to Donahue in a sidelong glance. "We found him outside of the facility in the tundra a few miles from the workstation area. His right paw's been…severed, sir. We think he died from loss of blood and body warmth."

"And what of the factory? Is it still there? Has anyone inside contacted you for assistance?" Donahue shook his head.

"There was no radio for help, sir. And when we try to signal them…there's no reply. The entire facility has been permanently locked down. No one gets in, and no one gets out. I'm sorry to say, sir…but Clockwerk was never finished, and his incomplete body is still inside of the facility."

Coal remained quiet as he zipped up the body bag and gave a long sigh. Closing his eyes, he laid his ears flat against his skull as his chest rose and fell with his calm breathing. "Sir…?"

"I will be in my office…I wish for no more interruptions for today." He walked away from the body on the table as the crowd parted for him to leave. He silently walked, farther down the hall until he entered his office. Shutting the door behind him, he locked the wood panel and moved to his desk, stopping in the middle of his office room. Clenching his fist, he growled deeply as he tightened his grip harder, small thin trails of crimson pouring from his palm.

Letting out a roar, he slammed his fist into the side of the wall, the force of his strike driving his arm deep into the surface as cracks trailed up from the hole his fist formed within the wall. He drew back another paw and formed a second hole, followed by a third, then a forth. Pulling his fists from the wall, he placed a palm flat against the intact portion of the wall and mulled over his thoughts. _"I know what you're thinking,"_ the cold slithering tone caused Coal's nails dug into the wall as he felt an unnatural cold creep across his skin. _"And I would have to say you're right. This was Cooper's doing." _

Coal glanced to his right and saw the ghastly form of Ivory White sitting in his office chair. His right foot rested on his left knee as his fingers were laced together, resting on his lap. Coal remained quiet as he nodded to the ghost. _"Pyrite Gold is dead," _he stated somberly. _"The boy failed to allow me to assist him and he was quickly put down." _

"I see…" Coal seethed. "It saves me the trouble of doing it myself at least." He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment and then opening them once more, his dark irises darting toward the ghost to his right. "Although…I could use someone to channel my aggression towards right now. You're all that's left of my prodigies…ironic considering you're already dead, isn't it?"

"_Unlike others, I'm still able to assist you, old friend." _The weasel grinned as he adjusted his glasses, inspecting his spotless white fingers, glancing over his short claws for a moment.

"Perhaps I should have spared Sterling after his first failure to poison Inspector Fox," Coal murmured to himself. White gave a wavering chuckle.

"_Mr. Silver was foolish, far too much in a hurry and over confident. Would you wish for me to deal with them? Inspector Fox and Cooper have returned to Paris and are currently in congregation with Constable Booker, Tom, and your former prodigies. You can find that I can be rather…potent, especially with large groups." _Coal shook his head.

"Not them, my friend. I would like to ask of you in facilitating the need of disposing a specific target, however. Would those terms be acceptable to you?" The albino weasel nodded his snow white head, his hollow eyes boring into his friend.

"_I'm more than happy to continue assisting you, Coal. Who is this specific target you wish for me to destroy?" _Coal gave a deep _hmm_ from the back of his throat as gave a light smile.

"You know of Inspector Carmelita Montoya Fox?" The ghost nodded, the grin on his lips stretching wider. "I charged you with monitoring her movements before she went to Russia. I've gotten reports back from the facility that it has been locked down, no one getting in or out of the complex. Kirill Mincov's body was displayed to me just a few moments ago."

He sighed, relaxing his grip on the wall. "Miss Fox has been quite the little bane of my plans. I want her taken out of the picture, for good this time."

"_What of Cooper, sir? He's been meddling in your affairs as well." _Coal's grin broadened.

"Once you finish Carmelita, I want her body transported personally to Cooper. The sight will most likely psychologically cripple him, seeing as he's displayed quite a bit of affection for her. Once this happens, he'll most likely seek me out for revenge, his judgment will be clouded by hatred and his movements will be sloppy. All I need to do is wait for him to make an inevitable mistake…and then Cooper will be knocked out of the equation as well. If we're lucky, we may also have a chance to lure his little friends out of their holes as well.

"I want Cooper personally." He blinked and then looked back to the ghost. "Can I trust you in this?" The ghost nodded.

"_Have I ever not given you results to your liking, old friend?" _The black animal blinked but remained quiet as he gave a dark smile.

"I look forward to your report, Mr. White." The weasel nodded and spread a wide, fang filled smile before he dissipated into a plume of smoke and vanished.

* * *

Cooper snapped his eyes open as he raised his head, sitting up from his spot on the couch. He sighed and combed his hair back as he saw Bentley deeply involved with the glowing computer screen in front of his face, his fingers moving in a blur upon the keyboard. "You should time yourself on how fast you can type, there bud." Murray said standing behind the turtle and watching the computer over his shoulder.

"You wouldn't find a stop watch quick enough," Sly said, chuckling as he walked over to his friends.

"Glad to see you awake, how was your nap?" Sly responded with stretching out his back and arms, yawning as he scratched his sides.

"Not bad, considering I've been awake three consecutive mornings in a row. I swear; sleeping at night and waking up in the day's seriously screwed up my sleep schedule." Bentley glanced out the window the soft glow of a sliver of the moon aloft in the dark night sky.

"Well, it's dark enough, now." The turtle hooked a thumb to the window. He turned his attention back to the computer and began typing again.

"Whatcha' working on, Bentley?" The reptile looked back to Sly who moved to stand behind him and he returned to the computer screen.

"Conversing with our old friend on Thief net. I'm telling him of our progress in Siberia." Cooper scratched his head, resting another paw on the back of Bentley's chair.

"You sure that's a good idea? We don't really know too much on this guy, can you trust him with all that?" Bentley shrugged.

"He did give us photos leading us to Clockwerk, Intel on Coal's operations. And he's a criminal, he's on Thief net after all, there still is honor among thieves in this age." Cooper shook his head.

"Whatever ya say, Bentley." The turtle typed a flurry of sentences within the text box of the IM window and entered the message. A reply was quickly sent in return. "Hmm, seems our good friend still has more for us." He continued conversing with the anonymous tipper.

"_It is good to hear his factory in Russia has been decommissioned for good. I'm sorry to say though, that won't be enough to topple him." _Bentley sighed.

"_No doubt, I've never met someone as wily as Coal. I'm sure he has some ulterior motives and backup plans. His type usually does." _After a short pause, a reply was sent.

"_Not the kind of man to take too lightly, my friend. Did you discover anything from your sojourn to Russia?" _

"_Yes, my friends came back with information on his primary goal. Although we haven't put everything together yet, we discovered he was to use Clockwerk as a type of sophisticated submersible and dredge the sea bottom of the remainder of the Cooper Vault. Apparently, the Coopers had left a great many secrets within the vault that Coal is very interested in. We hope to beat him to the punch, so to speak." _After a long pause, the reply message popped into plain sight. Bentley leaned forward slightly, tilting his glasses up on his nose as he focused on every word.

"_I may have a bit of information for you concerning the Cooper secrets." _Sly immediately gave his full attention to the computer screen as Bentley read the words out loud.

"He knows the Cooper secrets? What does he know? What are the secrets?" Sly clutched Bentley's shoulder and gave him a hard shake, the turtle having to readjust his glasses as he tried typing once more. Cooper bore his eyes into the computer screen, drinking in every key press and every black text letter.

"_The Coopers, dating back to the Egyptian period have held their secrets within the vault ever since its creation. The Cooper line of master thief, after their lengthy thieving career, would store their accumulating wealth within the vault. The most prized items of the world were housed in those walls."_ Sly growled.

"I already know this! Tell me what the secrets are! Tell him, Bentley, c'mon!" Bentley readjusted his glasses again to Sly's shaking, swatting his paw off his shoulder.

"Calm down, Sly. We won't get anywhere yelling at this guy. Let me work, I'll get your answers, I promise." Cooper drew away, throwing his paws up in defeat as he growled in frustration. Bentley looked back to the computer and continued typing. _"What did the Coopers hide within the vault?" _After a short pause, another reply swiftly came.

"_The Coopers, since the creation of the vault, were charged with safeguarding the secrets held within its walls. The secret's existence as since been lost to time, but the stories were kept alive as every Cooper would pass their knowledge down to their offspring once they inherited their cane and were ready to assume the title of Master Thief." _Sly frowned, knowing his family had passed away before his father relayed him that information. _"Traditionally, every Cooper would create their own cane, finding the variant design to better assimilate to their unique style of thievery." _

"_Slytankhamen II was inspired from the Egyptian Khopesh, or "sickle swords" as they have been called before, modeling his canes after them and finding the curved hook invaluable to maneuverability as well as for grabbing objects, to keeping his enemies off balance by using the hook to rip weapons from paws, or to trip pursuers. The curved hook design was adopted by the proceeding Cooper family members and was thus decreed their trademark along with the blue raccoon head. That symbol also has changed throughout the years." _Bentley nodded.

"_From my time using the Thievius Raccoonus, I would see sketches of the different cane variants along with the symbols that corresponded to their masters." _The conversation continued.

"_These secrets originated in Egypt, Slytankhamen being the first Cooper to steal them from corrupt nobles and hide them away from the world. These "relics of power" as historians called them were said to have held the powers of the Egyptian gods within them, bestowing incredible abilities to those who possessed them. These abilities included channeling one's energy to material objects, the Cooper cane for example. One could "charge up" a swing by using their body's spiritual energy, creating a devastating attack. Another more obvious power was the power to render one's self, invisible to the naked eye." _Cooper stopped, looking back to the computer.

"That's not true! I can turn invisible with a flick of the wrist; I didn't need help with some ancient golden headpiece or some stupid relic before!" Sly snapped to the computer, knowing that the recipient to his curses couldn't hear him. He was frustrated knowing that there was someone who wasn't of Cooper decent who knew so much about his family lineage. Bentley typed in Cooper's claim, a more polite version of his words and awaited a reply.

"How does he know all this? He isn't a Cooper; he's never had the Thievius Raccoonus before! My father kept it in his sights at all times before giving it to me, and I sure as hell know that my ancestors weren't careless enough to let anyone with no Cooper blood in their veins to look into the book! He couldn't know any of this...there's no way, right?" The raccoon looked down to Bentley, an expression of helplessness in trying to understand the situation.

The turtle shrugged and returned Sly's statements to his IM partner, trying to evaluate the situation.

"_True, after a short period of time, Slytankhamen was able to turn invisible without the aid of the ancient relic. The relic's power was absorbed into his body, having an emotional trigger instead of a material object to trigger the ability. This trait passed down with his children who he taught how to "feel" the ability to become invisible. Many Coopers have used these relics to better shape their craft at thieving, but some have also created abilities through perseverance. "Tennessee Kid" Cooper was known to slide across railroad tracks and sprint across cables."_

"_While this is an amazing feat, it wasn't impossible, especially for the naturally agile Coopers to master after a bit of practice and study from the notes left in the Thievius Raccoonus by their ancestors. Rioichi Cooper's ninja spire jump was also a natural ability created by him. But the relics were invaluable to the Cooper's, Slytankhamen seeing them as both a gift, and curse. Stealing the relics, he found that, when combined and if placed into the wrong hands would cause complete chaos to the world. Such power could never be given the chance to see the light of day again." _After a pause, letting the group absorb what was explained to them, the text continued, Cooper biting down hard on his lip in anxiousness.

"_The Coopers decided to keep the relics stored away in the vault for the remainder of the Earth's existence. For all eternity you could say. They vowed if they were to use the relics, which they were to only use one. And one was all they ever did use. Each Cooper, as they were decreed Master Thief, would choose which relic to have in their possession, if they so chose, immediately returning it to the vault once the relic's power had become absorbed into their bodies." _

"_It could take up to weeks to choose which relic would best suit their individual style. It was recorded that Colonel Reid Cooper, inventor of the time stop move took up to at least a month meditating inside the vault before he chose the relic he wished to use to perpetually freeze time while he could move freely. The Cooper line was in fact incredible, but not even something like turning invisible was by pure skill alone." _Cooper shrugged as his arms crossed over his chest. _"And now, I believe Coal wishes to possess those relics, perhaps for something cliché like taking over the world or something to that effect." _

Bentley typed on the keyboard for a moment, sending his message to his IM partner. _"But you didn't answer my previous question. How do you know all this if you're not a Cooper yourself?"_ There was a pause, much to everyone's expectance.

"_Let's say, I have a personal history with the Cooper forebears of the current generation." _Sly quirked a brow. _"I knew a few Coopers in my time, seen a few of them running across rooftops. A fascinating bunch they were…still are. How I learned all this information…I don't really think you'll believe me if I told you."_

"_Try me," _Bentley coaxed.

"_Very well. They told me personally."_Everyone looked to the screen. _"By you not typing, I'd say you didn't believe me. Truth is I was once allied with a few Coopers on occasion. The Cooper children and their gangs had at one time or another needed my assistance." _

"_They didn't tell me to pull heists with them or anything, but using my old store I used to own as a type of temporary hideout for them to shake the police. One time, I think it was a Connor Cooper who, having just started out on his heists, kept the Thievius Raccoonus with him in his travels to look into when executing moves out in the field for reference. I…took a peek and he caught me. But, he saw me as a trusted ally, along with his father and grandfather, so he trusted me with these secrets, knowledge of the Cooper vault, and the relics of power. But I swear, even if I wanted to go to the Cooper vault, I don't have the means, or even know where it was, let alone able to open it from what Connor told me."_

"_Good to hear," _Bentley responded.

"_Now that that's out in the open…what are his plans?" _

"_He plans to reshape the world to his vision of a "perfect existence." He wishes to create some sort of Garden of Eden, a place free from corruption and violence. Of course, he wishes to hold complete domination over everything. With the money still stored inside what's left of the vault that we didn't recover, he could buy the whole world over at least twice." _

"_You said you've recovered part of the vault?" _Bentley nodded, the man on the other end of the conversation unable to see the gesture as Bentley typed. Cooper placed a paw onto his friend's shoulder and looked at him.

"I still don't trust him. We shouldn't be too open with our info, Bentley. I have a bad feeling about this guy." The turtle leaned back in his chair, regarding his friend.

"He could probably help us, Sly. I understand and have weighed the risks. I've been tracing his locations and identity through our conversations. Know what I found out? He's currently a retired businessman who used to use his store as a front, holding valuables, bootlegging during the time of prohibition, and shaking off the heat from officers, much like we've done actually."

Cooper, his gaze still narrowed towards the computer screen sighed, unwrapping his arms from crossed over his chest. Bentley continued typing on the keyboard once more.

"_Yes, part of the vault remained intact. A parting gift from our friend, the current inheritor of the Master Thief title." _There was a long pause before any hint of the other line beginning to type out a response.

"_Then, it is possible that some of the relics could be stored within what part of the vault you possess." _Everyone looked from the computer screen to the large door that housed the reconstructed section of the vault Bentley had installed. The group then turned back to the computer screen as the turtle began typing again.

"_I think we'll have to take a look inside. Thank you for your invaluable contribution to our cause, my friend." _

"_Think nothing of it. It benefits me as well, knowing Coal will be taken out of the picture. If he takes over the world…what's left for us thieves?" _Bentley chuckled.

"_No doubt. Again, thank you."_

"_I sincerely hope you find what you're looking for. My regards to Mr. Cooper."_ He logged off, leaving Bentley to his own devices as he shut down the window and turned around. Cooper watched with thin lips as he blinked, staring down at the dark carpet in thought.

"Everything ok, Sly?" The sound of his name coxed him out of his silent thoughts.

"Yeah, Bentley, let's just get the vault open and see if this guy was really truthful as you claimed."

"That's not all you're thinking about right now, buddy," Murray came in. "C'mon, what's eatin' you, bud?"

"This guy…he knew my father, way before I was ever able to gather from his notes he left in the Thievius Raccoonus. Even in death, my father still likes to confuse me with riddles. His laser slide technique wasn't even in the book. I learned it on a whim while inside the vault back on Kaine Island." He paused, shrugging his shoulders.

"And this guy comes along knowing so much about my family that I'm almost ready to believe every word he said…it's all pretty deep stuff."

"Well," Murray said as Bentley began wheeling away from his desktop. "We'll just have to crack open that vault and see if there's something in there your ancestors left for us to find." Bentley nodded, lurching forward from a sneeze and readjusting his glasses.

"Drat's, and I thought my sneeze finally went away." Rubbing his nose in frustration, he continued. "I'll have to agree on Murray here, let's get things into motion."

* * *

"Please hurry, Bentley." Sly paced back and forth, his eyes glued to the golden vault door embroidered with the raccoon head, Murray's hippo, and Bentley's turtle symbol along with the indentation for the cane to be placed in. The more sophisticated door held more security than simply using the cane as a key as Bentley got passed the laser grids and blast doors. The raccoon continued pacing, moving back and forth like a wolf sizing up its prey before it lunged at the sheep.

"Just a moment, Sly. I'm almost…" and the final grid of lasers dissipated. "There." He turned back to the raccoon and gestured for him to step forward. "It's all you, pal."

"Open that door." The heart within Sly's chest throbbed as it bounced like a single bead rattling inside a jar. Drawing in a breath, he held up his father's cane and inserted it into the mold. Turning the golden hook, a series of clicks and sounds of moving parts echoed through his ears as the door shuddered. Sly withdrew the cane and the vault slowly began to turn like a cog within a machine, the heavy steel bars that bolted it shut slowly slid into the turning door and the vault swung open.

A series of lights quickly flicked on, illuminating the chamber filled with mountains of gold and jewels. Strewn with the random portrait, or jewel embroidered swords and headpieces, the trio walked into the light, the golden mounds casting their shining glory onto the walls, bathing the chamber in gilded beauty. Sly sighed, moving down through the passage between the mountains of coin and currency, seeing it pail in comparison to the original vault. The portraits of his forefathers had been lost within the original vault as it sank to the bottom of the ocean, yet Cooper was glad he made one final stop before leaving, grabbing the most prized possession within the vault's walls. He looked up, gazing in admiration to the portrait of his father, at least, part of it.

The section of the painting that portrayed the elder raccoon's head was torn away, sitting on the pedestal adorned with some of his most prized treasures. One of which was a photo of his son and wife, held within a humble wooden picture frame. He could have had a diamond encrusted golden picture frame, yet the man was far too modest for something so extravagant, and Sly honored this quality. "Sly," Bentley said, sitting behind Cooper.

"Yeah?" Cooper continued looking at the portrait of his father, having a similar photo in his room.

"If you'd like…we could get that portrait restored. You have a similar picture in your room, right?" The raccoon turned around and nodded to his lifelong friend. "We could take that picture, and replicate the section of the portrait that was damaged, having the portrait restored basically back to how it looked when it was placed in here." Cooper looked back up to the picture and smirked, shaking his head.

"Nah," he said, to everyone's surprise. "Dad's always been the reclusive type. When he retired, he only wanted to spend time with my mom and me. He always had this knack of keeping his face out of plain view from everyone else." He began to chuckle, shaking his head.

"My mom told me a story that she never saw his entire face until they started dating, she having to catch him while he was sleeping to finally get a full view of him. It was always hidden by keeping the brim of his cap lowered over his face. I think it was fate that the portrait's face was marred beyond recognition…he would like it this way." He laughed again. "Mom would always tell me…'let your father hide his face, you two look exactly alike, I'll always know what he looks like under that hat of his by looking at you."

"He can't hide a single thing from me.' And he never could, a master thief in every right of the title, and he couldn't hide a single thing from my mom. Their anniversary…she found a priceless necklace he had stolen off some crime boss' daughter's neck." He was trapped within the memories the portrait had instilled in him that he almost lost focus to what they were here for. He sighed, turning away from the picture.

"Let's go find those secrets," he finally said. Murray clapped a huge hand on Sly's shoulder.

"I really wish I coulda met your dad, Sly. I bet he'd be a pretty cool guy, being your dad and all; you take after him a lot. And you're the coolest guy I know." Sly smiled,

"Thanks, Murray."

"Yes, I'd like to know how exactly he was able to slide across trails of concentrated thermal energy. How in blazes he was able to do that is beyond me. I wonder if he would be able to walk across other forms of radiation." Cooper chuckled.

"Cause he's the man, Bentley."

"Yes, or he had the help of one of those relics." Sly nodded, his mind wondering what secrets if any were hidden in their section of the vault. Walking farther down the lengthy chamber, the trio of thieves searched every corner they could find, seeing nothing they haven't already found before. Sly sighed, lowering his shoulders, yet refused to give up so easily. The raccoon slouched, sitting on an elegant gilded throne atop a mound of gold coins.

Bentley scratched his chin, looking around. "Perhaps…there's a door or something hidden behind some of this gold, or…a voice recognition device. Or password encryption."

"Maybe all the secrets were stored in one spot in the other vault." Murray popped up from behind the mound of gold, wearing a crown tilted over his head as his fingers were covered with rings. Sly slouched in his throne farther, tapping a finger against the side of his head in thought as his elbow was propped up on the armrest.

"But the guy on Thief net said that the relics were too dangerous to be kept together. I don't know…perhaps some were stored in areas where their master's portraits were." He looked over to his father's picture that loomed out into the distance from their current spot atop the mountain of gold. "My father's portrait was the only one we recovered…but I moved it from its original spot. His relic wouldn't be with the portrait now, and all the others of my ancestors are still in the old vault."

Murray scratched his head as he leaned against a long gold handle that jutted out from the mound of coins. The handle shuddered and the hippo lost his balance, rolling down the mountain of coins as the handle slowly bent downward, much like a switch. Bentley and Sly heard the noise of something turning underneath the mound of gold and the two quickly jumped off, Murray sitting up from off the floor and watching as the mountain of coins began to shake and vibrate slightly. A tidal wave of coins from current to ancient times began to pour down on the trio, covering them with heavy metals. "Ack, help, help," Bentley shouted as he tried to _swim_ to the surface of the golden sea.

Murray's head broke the surface as he reached down into the gold and plucked Bentley from the ocean of coins. "Thanks…"

"What…happened?" Sly took off his cap and shook out a few coins that were stored away under the brim of the cap. Murray spat out a sapphire from his mouth and the thieves looked up to where the mound originally stood. Sly's eyes lit up with intrigue as Murray's mouth slowly hung open along with Bentley's. A large metal vault, made of shining steel loomed over them, the mound of coins concealing the chamber within the Cooper vault.

There was an indentation of the trademark curved C hook of the Cooper's cane and everyone looked to Sly. The raccoon looked to his friends and climbed out of the pile of coins and walked towards the large door. Placing his palm against the cool metal, he sighed. Smiling, he nodded and pressed the cane into the indentation, turning it much like the Cooper vault. Murray and Bentley stood beside the raccoon as they watched the door turn, slowly pulling away the locks and then swung open, surprised to see the vault completely dark inside. Bentley scratched his head.

"You would think there would be a bright shining light of some sort, or a great gust of wind or some divine sight. These relics are said to house the powers of a God, right?" Sly sucked in a breath, stepping forward into the vault, disappearing into the darkness. Suddenly, a loud scream was heard inside the vault as it echoed out.

"Sly!" Murray shouted.

"Sly, Sly are you alright?" Bentley wheeled forward towards the vault. Jumping back as Sly poked his head out from the shadows.

"Yeah, just fine." A large smile was on his face as he stifled a chuckle. Bentley crossed his arms, clearly not amused by Sly's antics.

"That wasn't funny, Sly."

"Yeah," Murray stepped forward, slapping his knees. "It was hilarious."

"Guy's, you gotta come in here." He beckoned them with a wave of his paw and they entered the smaller vault. Inside, it was dark, far too dark for Bentley or Murray to see. For a nocturnal raccoon however, his vision was perfectly suited for traversing the vault. "Careful, it get's darker the deeper we go. Take my paw; it's like a maze down here."

"Smart way for the Coopers to make sure no one gets in here easily. Even if they could see in the dark, they still have a maze to go through." Bentley took Sly's paw as Murray held onto Bentley's wheelchair and they continued down the twisting corridors. "Wait, how do you know where you're going, Sly?" Cooper shrugged.

"Maybe it's just a gift." He smirked in knowing, seeing the telltale blue sparkles he had seen on slide-able rails and points he was able to land on with the spire jump. The trail of shimmering blue led them to the middle of the maze, where a hint of a glowing light source was finally seen. The five lights, each illuminating a select portrait of a familiar looking raccoon were hung on the wall of the round room. Underneath each portrait was a small box.

Sly stepped forward, reading the names of each Cooper out loud. "Drake Cooper…creator of the knockout dive." The portrait displayed a tall, thin raccoon with dark locks tied back in a tail, his clothing looking to have dated back to the beginning of the modern age. His left foot stood upon an unconscious foe as his right paw held up a gilded flintlock pistol and a long, slender curved golden blade that resembled the curved hooked end of the Cooper cane hung at his hip. "Karen Cooperigwa…inventor of the coin magnetism ability," he said, moving to the next portrait.

He glanced down at the box under her portrait, sure enough; a few stray coins clung to the side of the box. The female raccoon though had clear feminine features, bore a striking resemblance to Sly. Especially in her smirk, the way her cheeks stretched and were pronounced. She carried a cane resembling that of Sly's yet hers had a golden hook on each end of the wooden pole, wearing a pair of thigh high boots and a mask that covered the entire top half of her head, her grey curls pooling down her back as coins were piled around her feet. Sly went to the next portrait.

"B.F. Cooper…inventor of the fast motion technique." The wily eyed raccoon youth was depicted with a crazed, flayed hairstyle and a big toothy grin, his eyes wide and lit up with energy. His thin frame and hyperactive nature made him perfect for dodging projectiles as was shown him sprinting down a corridor with automated motion tracking turrets spraying loads of lead in his direction, him dodging every stray bullet effortlessly. The fourth portrait was a lot more familiar to the raccoon. "Matthew de la Coopeur….inventor of the slow motion technique."

The French nobleman was depicted with a long grey braid trailing down his back and a rapier with a curved golden handle in his grasp, skewering a sack of coins as he leaned against the blade like a walking cane, his elaborately decorated coat distinguishing him as a very upper-class individual. Sly caught the sight of a very familiar French military hat hanging on a very posh, high-backed chair in the background, seeing it bore a striking resemblance of Napoleon Bonaparte's hat during the French empire. Sly then looked to the far end, coming up to the final portrait in the dim room. Sly stopped, looking at the portrait of a very close relative of his. "Conner…Cooper…inventor of the laser slide technique."

He sighed, looking into the eyes of his father's, the elder Cooper sliding down a glowing trail of red light with a duffle bag strapped to his back, a few bills of currency poking out from the zipper. He looked down to the box under his father's portrait, lifting it up and slowly opening the lid. Inside rested a small gold circlet, a ring, a very common looking ring. Cooper hesitatingly reached for it, surprised as he didn't feel any different as he clutched the small piece of jewelry in his paw. He held it up and showed it to Bentley. "You wanted to know how he did it, Bentley. Here it is."

He tossed the ring to the turtle who fumbled when catching it, examining it as he held it between his index finger and thumb. "Interesting, it looks like an ordinary ring." He then quirked a brow as he saw carvings on the inside of the ring. "Hmm, it appears to be ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. I could take it back to my computer and try to translate it, but…"

"No," Sly said, the other two animals looking back at him. "I can read it." Placing the small ring into Sly's palm, the raccoon turned the ring over in his paws as he read the engraving out loud. "He who…bestows this ring upon their finger…are granted…the ability to control the sun's rays." Everyone glanced at the ring in puzzlement. "That's what it says…what do you think it means? Dad certainly didn't control any sun, bringing in light would just be bad for any thief."

"Maybe…" Bentley wondered. "Maybe it just has to do with light. Being able to control light."

"Wouldn't it have just said light then? I mean, Dad slid across thermal energy as if it were a solid object." Bentley nodded, about to say something before Murray stepped forward.

"Well, those ancient guys didn't know nothing about thermal energy back then, right? Maybe it controls all light, your dad just using it to control the laser grids he had to get by in order to steal stuff." Bentley readjusted his glasses.

"Yes, that's basically what I was going to say." Cooper looked back at the ring, and then to his father's picture. Smiling at the ring and returning it into the box. Everyone looked at Sly who sighed as he looked back up to his father's face, the elder Cooper returning the stare with a light smile. "So…what relic are you going to use, Sly?"

Cooper turned back to Bentley. "I..." he didn't have an answer. Every relic was already used before, the technique carried on from his ancestors to him. No relic here could really benefit him, he thought. "There's…nothing here I could use."

"I mean, I already have all these abilities with me, right? What's the point?" Murray placed a hand on the raccoon's shoulder.

"Ya don't have to use the relics the way your ancestors did, little buddy. You could think of maybe some other cool way to use em'."

"Or, make a technique of your own without the help of the relics," Bentley said. Cooper looked back to the boxes and the portraits of his forefathers. He sighed and shook his head.

"Let's just wait for a while. Maybe…there's something in the old vault that I could put to better use." Everyone nodded as Sly began leading them out of the maze, into the larger vault and then back out into their home. The vault door closed behind them, quickly spinning and clamping down as the laser grids quickly laced out to cover the door with a mesh pattern of red light. Sly looked toward the vault door for a moment, sighing to himself as he relaxed his shoulders.

"Everything ok, Sly?" He turned around, seeing Bentley behind him in his wheelchair. The raccoon glanced back to the vault, and then shrugged to the turtle.

"Yeah, just a little…ah, it's nothing." He reassured him with a grin and he walked away from the vault.

* * *

The fresh air felt good, the cold night wind blew into his face, wakening him up to his very core. He inhaled deeply the rich, crisp oxygen, and then expelled it from his open mouth with a sigh, a wisp of silvery fog escaping from his lips. He looked down to the cane he held in his paw, his fingers clenching and loosening around the wooden shaft. He felt a pressing obligation for some unknown reason, feeling determined all of a sudden. Perhaps the visit to the vault had inspired him to finally put a new technique to the test for the Coopers to master.

But what? What was there possibly left to master? He was able to render himself invisible, slide across rails and walk tightropes with his eyes closed. He could briefly defy gravity, contort himself into a ball and roll into tight spaces, and change his identity at will. What else was there for him to contribute?

He sighed, looking down from his perch atop the flagpole, the red white and blue segments of the French flag flapping in the breeze below him. Perhaps he would simply have to be patient, to wait until they got to the Cooper vault before Coal does and find the remaining secret relics and see what their effects were. Perhaps there were still relics the Coopers had not used yet. His mind ran wild as he scratched his chin. "Maybe…maybe a necklace that could make you walk through walls! Cracking safes would be as easy as reaching inside the door and grabbing a handful of valuables!"

"Or maybe…maybe a gem that could make you walk on water! Or something that makes you immune to tear gas!" He stopped in his train of thought…crouching down low as he wrapped his arms around himself, the tips of his feet balancing on the peak of the flagpole. "All the good it'll do…it won't be me who created it…just some stupid trinket. Dad used a relic…but used it in a creative way, a way it wasn't originally meant to be used, creating something truly unique."

He sighed, scratching the side of his head under the brim of his cap. "Man…this is harder than I thought it would be. Pretty pathetic, huh?" He said to himself as he looked at the cane in his paws. "All this time being the carrier of the Master Thief title…and I don't even have my own technique yet."

He looked away from the cane, seeing as it wouldn't respond to his question and he looked over the expanses of Paris in front of him. His eyes quickly caught the sight of a very familiar building; crowded around a few, lower rooftops. A light smile spread across his lips as he stood tall on the pole and launched himself off the tip. Pulling out his hang glider, the fabric quickly unfolded as a series of cables shot out, Cooper grasping them in his paws as he sailed downward, landing with a roll onto a roof adjacent to his intended destination. Springing up, he ran across the length of the roof and clutched onto the side of his targeted building, moving around as if he were born attached to the wall and swung around to the broad side, not a soul below him ever saw a flicker of movement.

Cooper looked from the top of the roof, to the length of the building down to the streets, measuring it and the space between each window, until the billow of a familiar pair of curtains caught his attention. The window was open, causing his smile and exhilarated heartbeat to flutter as he quietly climbed inside. Looking to the mattress across from him, he noticed it empty, so he deviously smirked as he placed his cane against the wall, climbing up onto the bed and lying on his side, propping himself up on his elbow as his right knee was raised, taking off his hat and resting it by his side. His ears twitched to a noise from the other side of the door, hearing the fluttering of movement as it drew closer. Cocking his brows in a demure, suave position, he gave his devious smirk to almost full power as his heart raced, seeing the door slowly opening.

Carmelita Fox, pushing the door open with her eyes lazily closed, didn't notice the man lying on her bed for a moment, but a sudden sting of panic crawled up her back and her eyes shot open, quickly landing on the raccoon. His smile broadened, flashing a row of teeth to her. She didn't jump, didn't yell, or hardly make a noise at all. She stood there, simply watching him with large eyes as she still held onto the doorknob unconsciously. "Bonsoir ma femme enflammée douce. Vous ai-je attrapés au dépourvu, ma colombe?"

She let her paw slip off the door handle as she crossed her arms over her chest. Her lips hung open slightly as her bottom lip was pursed forward a bit. Bringing her brows down slightly in an accusing glare, she leaned against the doorframe. "Sly Cooper," she said, concealing her surprise. "You do realize I could file charges of breaking and entering my apartment."

Sly sighed and leaned back a little more on the mattress, chuckling as he craned his head back up to gaze toward the ceiling. Lying flat on the mattress, he looked back to her from resting on her pillow. "You can cuff me now if you'd like." She gave a sarcastic laugh as she stood by the mattress and looked down at him, his eyes gleaming like a puppy's. "So, where were you, so late in the evening?"

"Unlike some people, ringtail, I make my living actually working." He propped himself up on his elbows.

"How'd the Chief take your absence?" She cocked a brow as she turned to him, sitting down on the mattress.

"Not too bad, actually."

"Oh good, he mention anything about me?" He smiled as he fluttered his eyes at her.

"Yeah, he actually did. He wanted me to tell you that he wants to offer you back into the force."

"Really?"

"No, dumbass," Sly sighed as his head crashed back onto the pillow.

"So, he's still mad, huh?" She nodded, placing a paw on his knee.

"He took a big risk, pulling a lot of strings and covering things up so you could be an officer. How would you react if all your hard work was just thrown out the window like that?" He nodded, looking up to the ceiling once more.

"I understand his attitude. I wouldn't like being used that way either." A light switch flicked on in his head as he suddenly came to realization. "Like…how I used you." Carmelita looked back to him as she tried to discern his statement.

"All this time, playing with your emotions like that…I'm so sorry." Carmelita blinked and slowly turned her face away, staring off toward the wall in thought.

"Cooper…you don't-

"No, I really think I do." He moved up closer to her and embraced her in a tender hug. She hesitated a moment, puzzled by his intentions, but returned the hug as she pressed her palms against his back. "Carmelita…all the things I've said to you, all the remarks, the flirtatious words. I want you to know that they were all true, everything I've said, how I would give anything to go out on a date with you, how you're always so lovely when you're angry, how beautiful you are."

"As beautiful as I am unpredictable, I believe you said when you broke into the museum looking for the Clockwerk parts." He chuckled.

"That was almost three years ago."

"And I'm still as unpredictable as ever." As if to validate her statement, Sly suddenly felt pressure against his wrists as a familiar clicking sound echoed through the small bedroom. He looked down, blinking in surprise as a pair of handcuffs were staring right back at him, circling his wrists. "You think I forgot your bet with Dorian, the one where you said I could haul you in myself?" Sly smiled as he raised his joined paws in front of himself in surrender.

"Yeah, but I was pardoned, remember? And I haven't touched a single item that I didn't own." She moved forward, placing a paw on his shoulder.

"True, I wouldn't be able to arrest you for anything, right now." He chuckled.

"Just like I promised you, I've been extra good, Miss Fox." She nodded.

"Yeah, you have I'll admit. So, why don't I reward your good behavior?" She leaned against him, her chest flush against his as he drew in a surprised breath. Lifting his bound arms up, she unfastened one of the cuffs and pushed against his body, forcing him to lie on his back on the mattress, crawling up his body until they were both level with one another's eyes. Slowly inching closer to his lips, she pressed her mouth against his as she felt his body shudder to her touch.

Her tickling fingers trailed up the length of his torso, sliding up his side as she clutched his wrists, pulled the loose cuff around the wooden post of the headboard and refastened the cuff back around his free wrist. She withdrew from his mouth, licking her lips seductively as she pulled off her jacket, letting it slide off her and pool onto the carpet by the bed. "Carmelita…" he breathed anxiously, his chest quickly rising and falling with each breath the raccoon sucked in.

"Shh," she cooed, pressing a light finger against his nose. "I want to reward you, ringtail. You being so…just showing such control and morality…it's just so hot." She leaned forward, nuzzling under his neck, rubbing the length of her muzzle under his chin as she kissed his jaw line. She slid her paws down his torso, feeling the formation of his chest and stomach under his sweater as she clutched the end and slowly pulled it off him, the sleeves covering his arms as the cuffs kept her from pulling the shirt off him completely.

Running her palms against his chest, she spread her fingers, tracing the outlines of the toned muscles of his chest, trailing her fingers lazily down his stomach, causing goose bumps to rise off his skin from the tantalizing sensation, wiggling her dancing fingers against his abs and his flanks, feeling the solid bone of his ribcage under the hard padded muscle. "Carmelita…this is a…very nice reward. I thought you wanted to wait, I would never want to rush into something like this if you weren't ready." She silenced him with her lips against his again as she moaned seductively against his mouth, Cooper grunting as she brought his bottom lip to suckle on, nibbling tenderly against the sensitive flesh.

"Well…Cooper," she whispered huskily in his ear. "You're right; I don't want to rush into this yet." His eyes grew as she slid off him, pulling the zipper back up on her halter top as she combed her hair back with her fingers. A sinister smile was painted on her face, the hint of seductive nature she displayed just moments ago still clinging to her face. Cooper looked at her with a profound sense of confusion and longing.

She shook her head slowly as she sat back onto the bed and placed two fingers on his chest, moving one in front of the other like a pair of legs walking up a furry grey trail. "Now don't get me wrong, ringtail, that shower was great…but I just don't think we're really ready for the next step. Besides, you'll have something to look forward to as you fantasize about tonight and what we both witnessed in the shower together." She smiled, moving her strutting paw up to his neck as she patted his cheek. Standing up, she turned for the door.

"Hey, wait," Sly called to her, a pleading hint in his voice. "What about me? You're not just going to leave me cuffed to your bed, are you?" She looked back over her shoulder and winked.

"You've no idea how long I've wanted to see you like this, Cooper." She finished speaking as a knock at her front door pulled her attention away from the raccoon shackled to her bed. Her tail fluffed up slightly in surprise, walking out of the bedroom to go answer the door. Sly contently wagged his striped tail under him slowly back and forth as he glanced over the vicinity of her room, finding that all the familiar little objects and décor were just as they were situated since he lived here with her. He drew his ears up as he turned back to the bedroom door, Carmelita entering and briskly sauntering towards the mattress.

Reaching for his bound wrists, Carmelita began to loosen the cuffs. "Wait a second," Sly muttered as Carmelita loosened the cuffs from his wrists, feeling the metal coils sliding away. "What are you doing? I rather liked being handcuffed to your bed." Putting on another smirk, he beamed his eyes up to her. The vixen shook her head and unfastened the cuffs.

"I need you to leave. Whoever is at the door could be one of my squad-mates. They said they would come by, and having you handcuffed to my bed wouldn't be good for my career." She placed a firm foot against his hip, giving him a gentle nudge off of the bed before he promptly hit the floor with a quiet bark.

"Alright, alright," he said between chuckling as he readjusted his sweater and reaching for his cane, giving his tender wrists a rub with his paws. "Man, that had to be the longest time you've ever had the cuffs on me at one time." She jabbed a finger to him, letting it rest upon his coal black nose as she pushed against his snout.

"And you better keep your paws off things that don't belong to you, or you'll end up getting more and more used to the feeling of them. Got it, bucko?" He grinned, raising his paws up in surrender once more.

"Right, message received, baby."

"Out the window you scoundrel," Carmelita ordered. "If anyone sees you here, my career is finished." She pointed her finger to the drawn curtains and Sly nodded, bowing low with a twirl of his cane.

"Farewell, my sweet," and he quickly turned around, sprinted for the window sill and placed a foot onto the edge. Turning back to look to her one last time, he winked and flew out the window. Carmelita walked up to the sill and glanced out, finding not a trace of the raccoon.

_"-If anyone see you here...my career is finished."_ Her own words echoed around in her head as she walked to the door and opened it up slowly, a paw clutched the little wooden knob of a small drawer next to the front door where she withdrew a Berretta 92SF. Disengaging the safety, she pulled back the hammer with a thick series of clicks, drawing the door fully open when the door revealed Dorian, she relaxed a little. "Dorian." The ocelot gave her a sheepish smile and a shrug as his paws were dug into his thick leather jacket; which Carmelita could only tell that it was hiding a ballistic vest only when he spread his arms out.

"Hi, Carmelita. Just thought I would stop by and see you...you know..."


	30. Between Life and Death

**Chapter 30**

**Between Life and Death**

**

* * *

**

**T**he pale, glowing face of the sliver of moonlight graced his hollow eyes. Waving a transparent, snowy white paw in the air, Mr. White stood atop a high skyscraper; his only company was the occasional rumble of a plane flying by or the stoic stone statues that adorned the building. He leered toward the moon once more, then turned around, walking along the tower's roof for a moment, his arms folded behind his back as the long folds of his white coat trailed behind him. He sniffed the air, taking a long lungful of crisp oxygen, though he was unable to taste the air and feel it rushing through him, he exhaled a large swirling mass of smoke from his teeth, reaching up to give his whiskers a stroke before stepping to the edge of the building. He crouched down low, his knees almost reaching the sides of his head as he folded his arms and tucked himself into a small ball, leering down to the streets below him.

The small dancing lights, trailing and skittering about like a colony of ants masked the true intensity of the city far below. Everything was fast, intense, loud. He cared little for the life style, or the people who were accustomed to such a way of living. _"Everything is so…quiet." _He blinked slowly, his left ear flickering to an unknown sound. Glancing to his left, he acknowledged an unseen presence.

"_Yes…I understand your situation. What's that?" _He paused, waiting for his unseen partner in the conversation to continue. He nodded. _"Yes…I'm afraid that is the case, unfortunate as it may sound. It's not all that bad." _

He shrugged to the unspoken words. _"How did it happen to me? Well…I believe it was almost three years now. I was working on assignment, things took a little turn for the worst and I ended up trapped inside a burning building. I called Coal for assistance, anyone. But the blaze was far too intense, the commotion drowned out any of my cries for help as I was trapped, encased in a dome of debris inches thick, ready to bury me under it at any moment."_

He shrugged, blinking again as he licked his lips, unable to feel the moisture from his tongue, it was a simple mortal reflex that he had not been able to shake, along with blinking from time to time. _"The smoke was very thick, all the oxygen was burned away, and I collapsed, just in time to see the trails of fire beginning to tear away at my clothes, all the while listening to the horrid screams of the dead who burned inside the building along with me. I began to cry, hearing such screams from people once living and now burning to ash in the afterlife." _He paused, closing his featureless eyes and blasting out a geyser of silvery fog from his nostrils. _"I was burned alive, listening to the howling ghosts of those who died along with me. _

"_And then, the next day…I woke up. Well…I opened my eyes again at least. Well…they weren't really my eyes. It's awfully complicated to describe, to be all scientific about it. But to me, it felt like being born again…only you didn't enter the world breathing or crying or looking into the eyes of your parents." _

He chuckled, shaking his head. _"Yes…I am being a little too dramatic, I apologize. But…death is quite dramatic in a sense, don't you agree?" _He stood up, turning back towards the unseen speaker, a wavering outline of a figure beginning to take form, slithering tendrils of fog coiling around until the smoke began forming a somewhat solid form. A torso, followed by limbs with wavering fingers, a long thick neck and a solid, compact head with a short pointed muzzle.

The short fan like ears flipped up from his head, a bristled trail of fur trailing down the middle of his head, down his neck and back, disappearing in the neckline of his black t-shirt. _"The hardest part is accepting it," _Ivory continued, talking to his new materialized cohort.

"_Accepting is one thing," _the man said, spreading his lips wide in a grin, showing a row of false silver fangs. _"Trying to figure all this out is something else altogether, Ivory." _The ghastly visage of Sterling Silver stood behind Ivory, his paws shoved into the pockets of his jeans. The silver piercings in his left brow rose along with it as he quirked to the sights of the city below him. _"So…why are we here? Why did you bring me here?" _Ivory turned to Sterling and grinned.

"_You don't recognize this place?"_ Silver folded his arms in front of him, squinting his featureless eyes into Ivory's hollow gaze. _"Some ten stories straight down is the small dark stain left by your blood when it splattered against the wall of this building."_ Silver shuddered.

"_I saw the bullet rushing right at me. I told myself to move out of the way, watching as if I was watching it on a movie screen. And then everything just stopped. I've never been shot in the heart before…the only way I could describe it was…funny, it's just funny how it happened, zoom, splat and that's it." _He couldn't help but start to break out into a weak fit of cackles, high pitched, somewhat like a mix between friendly chuckling and a wavering howl. Ivory shook his head, the smile still plastered on his white face as he pushed up on the bridge of his glasses.

"_You truly do find humor in everything." _Sterling shrugged.

"_There are an awful lot of rumors that hyenas are natural comedians, what with the laughing. The really funny thing was that a long time ago, that high pitched laughing was actually a signal to other hyenas as a sign of alert, like we were being chased by a predator or something. There was nothing humorous about it. Funny, eh?" _He laughed again, throwing his head back. His laughing slowly began to die down as he watched the city below him.

The grin on his lips slowly began to contort into a frown as he continued looking downward. _"So…do you plan on staying here to keep me company?" _Sterling looked back to Ivory, contemplating his question. The hyena shrugged.

"_I wasn't planning on it. Why, is our little weasel getting lonely?" _

"_I was simply wondering. My obligation, since I'm able to communicate to the less…denser denizens of society, I took it upon myself to share their messages to the mortal…world I guess you could call it." _Silver blinked, toying with the small pointed stud that jutted out of his chin, flicking his pierced ears. _"So…what is it you came to me for? Convey a message to some long lost love, perhaps? Or to simply scare the bejesus out of some enemies for you and get wrongs righted?" _

Silver shook his head. _"No," _he said, his voice sounding as unnatural as Ivory's, the whispering echo that carried out with every spoken word. _"I came to you, with something that's been on my mind for awhile now."_

"_Well…don't leave me in suspense now. I don't have all day. Well…actually I do, I have all the time in the world." _The hyena took a step forward.

"_What are you planning to do with Coal?" _Ivory blinked, giving his full attention to Sterling. _"You're dead; you have no obligations to him any longer. You're free, why do you still do what he tells you to do, and without pay for the record?"_ White shook his head.

"_Material objects are beyond me now; I have very little use for them. The reason I still serve Black has nothing to do with things as trivial as money or to please the man. My intentions run a little deeper than that." _

"_And those intentions are…?" _Ivory looked back to the expanses of the city below, propping a leg up onto the ledge as he rested his arms on his thigh.

"_I am currently charged with disposing Carmelita Montoya Fox." _

"_Fox, you mean that Interpol bitch? Black sent you after her? Did Blue and Crimson fail then like I did? They must not be dead; or they'd be here too, right?"_ Ivory shook his head, still leering out to the city.

"_It doesn't work that way. If the soul simply refuses to remain dead, then I am able to interact with it, able to convey their thoughts and statements through my abilities to those of the material plain. If Indigo and Scarlet had died and accepted their death, their souls would be at peace. But no,"_ he turned back to Silver. _"They have not fallen, whether…they are in league with that 'Interpol bitch' as you call her." _Silver smacked his forehead.

"_Man…I'm sure I've missed a lot, there's some twisted elaborate story that will explain all this I'm sure. But for the sake of my short attention span _("And my fingers" - Tex)_ I'll just take a stab in the dark and say Blue and Crimson did something Coal didn't like and they're hiding out." _Ivory nodded.

"_You've never ceased to amaze me with your sharpness throughout the years, Sterling. I'm sorry that everyone else had thought so lowly of you during your career." _The hyena shrugged, flashing his smile.

"_Hey, who cares? I'm dead, I know true freedom now. I'm free from Coal, free from the stupid shit he wraps me up in, and free from everyone else and everything. Fuck Indigo, fuck Scarlet, and especially fuck Black, with a searing hot poker shoved right up his ass."_ He stormed toward the edge of the building and inhaled deeply.

"_You hear me you heartless piece of shit, you can't touch me no more!"_ He continued yelling, finding that he no longer needed a constant supply of oxygen to fuel his shouts anymore. _"Now,"_ he said, brushing his paw through the stripe of bristled hair that quickly pointed back up after his palm passed over the hairs. _"You still didn't answer my question. What're you gonna do about Black? You've probably got something in mind." _

"_Why so curious?" _

"_Because," _he nodded with a smirk. _"If you plan on fucking him up, I want in. Revenge is a dish best served cold, what colder than the freezing hands of death around his neck?" _He mimicked the motion of strangling one's life from them, grasping the thin air in his fists and wringing them together. White watched the enthusiastic ex-hitman with lightheartedness, placing a finger to his chin, pondering his next motion.

"_Very well," _Ivory stated. _"You want revenge; it's my personal obligation to assist the restless dead. Then, perhaps you may find inner peace."_

"_Inner peace, the long rest, whichever, I just want the guy kicking and screaming as I drag him to hell with me." _Ivory couldn't help but chuckle.

"_Hell…Heaven…so quaint."_ Silver stood next to his new partner and nudged him with his shoulder, the motion causing them to pass through one another at the shoulder.

"_You saying Heaven and Hell don't exist?" _The weasel shrugged.

"_It's not my place to say, whether there is this paradise floating up in the sky or the wicked are sent down to the flaming bowls of the devil's domain. What I know is that death isn't always the end. So…I just remain optimistic." _He chuckled, cracking a grin and turning to look at his partner.

"_You sure are lighthearted for a dead bloke."_

"_There's not much else to do. You know what the dead do with most of their time, Sterling?"_ The hyena glanced about.

"_You mean they don't yack about bullshit on rooftops all day?" _

"_You really are a comedian, but no, that's not all they do."_

"_Oh and here I was having fun talking to you on rooftops." _

"_The dead watch the living. They do this because…" _he drew out, waiting for Sterling to finish his sentence."

"_Because…they wanna watch women in the shower?" _There was a profound silence in the air as Ivory blinked very slowly, reopening his eyes and sighing, walking back to stare out to the city's expanses.

"_They watch the living because they still wish to be close to all those they have lost connection with. Ghosts are made up as a vengeful spirit, which in some cases they are, you are a…well, not so living example of that. But truth be told, ghosts are really just lonely, longing for physical contact. They wish to remain with those they left behind, and hold out hope that they can be reunited with the ones they loved." _

"_Aw…I'm getting real teary eyed here, White. Come here, you want a hug?" _Sterling held out his arms as he pursed his lips, mocking a whimper.

"_Do you want my assistance or not?"_ The hyena chuckled and let his arms fall limply at his sides.

"_Yeah, yeah, just trying to liven things up around here. This place is deader than…you actually. C'mon, I know they call it the afterlife, but can't we maybe just go haunt a cathouse for a minute, or maybe the 'Cest la vie' club is still playing music at this hour."_ Ivory shook his head once more.

"_I've lived once, being lively in the afterlife will simply get on my nerves, it's an impossible dream to try and 'live' when you're dead. Now come along, we have work to do. First things first, I have a date with a very lovely woman this evening." _

"_Alright, alright, alright." _Stepping to the edge of the building, the two apparitions looked down to the streets far below them and in one fluid motion, walked off the edge of the skyscraper, plummeting down, watching the glossy shell of the windowed covered surface of the building fly past them as they free fell down, the street rushing up to greet them as they met the hard concrete headfirst, plummeting nearly ten stories.

* * *

"Dorian," Carmelita breathed out in surprise, seeing the ocelot standing in the doorway.

"Hi, Carmelita. Just thought I would stop by and see you...you know..." The vixen stepped aside, allowing Dorian to enter her apartment as she shut the door. "Glad to see everything's starting to come back to normal," the ocelot said, looking around her apartment and seeing the windows open and the furniture rearranged to how he remembered it.

"The hits have finally gone down; I can sleep well at night here again." He grinned at her, turning around.

"We're really doing it; we're bringing Coal farther and farther down. He's probably rattling to pieces about how much damage we can do to him at any moment." Carmelita nodded, walking into the kitchen. "So..." Dorian paused as he followed her, "It's nice to see that Interpol paid to have your house fixed after those hit men trashed it." He looked at the counters, "Oh...are those granite? Nice."

"Yeah," she nodded over her shoulder. "The bonuses sure have helped bring everything back to...some kind of normal." She sighed, looking into the depths of the illuminated refrigerator. "If it ever will get back to normal. All the food in here's gone bad..."

"Well that's a big duh," Dorian said as he opened up what was once the lasagna he made for her a while back. He crinkled his snout and threw it in the trash, "Hey, at least your yogurts are still good...as well as your frozen milk and berries. I can make us a nice smoothie." Carmelita cupped her chin, her lips forming into a calm smile as the thoughts of a smoothie sounded quite refreshing right about now.

"Yeah...a smoothie would just about do it for me right now." Dorian smiled and plugged the sink as he turned on the hot water, steam rising as he placed the frozen gallon of milk in it. With the berries he let sit out on the counter as he pulled out everything he needed from the cupboards with uncanny accuracy; as if it were his own home.

"It will take a while for the milk to thaw enough for me to use it." He murmured as he began to rummage through the other drawers in her fridge, sucking up his duties as the man to sniff the foods before throwing them away. "Hey...wasn't this in here like...two weeks before the hits started?" He asked, holding up a small Tupperware container to the ceiling light.

"That?" Carmelita balked as she leaned forward, squinting up towards the plastic container. "I completely forgot about that. I was really looking forward to it too," she mumbled, combing back her hairs. "God, has it really been that long since they started?

"I still remember when that psycho wolf-dog broke into my apartment and tried to knife me. Bastard nearly broke my nose." She rubbed the coal black tip in her palm in memory as she furrowed her brows. "I didn't kill him though...I wonder whatever happened to the creep."

"Ah...I think it's a lost cause," Dorian said, pointing to the thick layer of purple mold that could be seen through the clear plastic. The ocelot was enjoying the closeness with Carmelita, and he unconsciously leaned into her a little bit as he caught a whiff of her hair. "And I think the Tupperware is a lost cause as well...I wouldn't want to open it...it could be deadly." He chuckled. "Think we should use it against Coal?"

She chuckled, realizing full well his intent at the closeness, but she allowed it. Going so far as to lean a bit more into him as she leaned her head closer to his. "Let's get Blue to mix up a wicked cocktail with this stuff. Coal's teeth and eyes might melt right out of his skull." She leaned a little farther out, reading the transparent words under the plastic ware.

"The Taiwanese sure do know how to make plastic. Surprised the stuff hasn't eaten through it and started melting through the floor." She giggled again, feeling the warmth of Booker's shoulder against her head.

"I'm just glad it isn't made in China." he smiled, his arm falling down by his side as he forced himself to break the contact, opening up the trashcan, but he hesitated and set it on the counter. "I seriously think Blue could make a military grade stink bomb with this thing as the base." He said with genuine amazement, "He'll just have to use the storm shelter built into the hill behind my house in order to make it...and if anything goes boom, it will be just him that goes." He chuckled.

"Man," she shook her head, smiling. "He must have pissed you out of your mind. I don't think I've ever heard you talk like that towards someone."

"Have you seen what he's done to my basement, or my bedroom?" He sighed, scratching the back of his head. "Now I _know_ you've seen what he's done to my closet. Or in it I should say." Carmelita shook her head, rubbing her forearm.

"I'd rather we try and forget that. That was just a little too much of them for me." She smirked, nudging the ocelot in the ribs with an elbow. "Bet you didn't mind too much about seeing all that Scarlet, though."

"Bah, she doesn't have anything I can't find on you." He smiled. "And you saw Blue, so don't act like you aren't impressed. He's...gifted to say the least." She blushed slightly, the rosy flush of her cheeks masked by the orange and red fur that frosted her face. She hid her flattery with a scoff.

"Please, so they have sex almost every waking moment. I'll bet my badge its meaningless. And Blue has some...'definitive' features, but none of that really matters. Seriously, size isn't everything. And thank you...that's really sweet of you to say about me, Dorian."

"I don't know, I think the phrase should be 'length isn't everything'. According to sex studies performed here at the University of Paris, women prefer thicker men." He chuckled as he side-stepped a swipe from Carmelita, "But yeah, I think your guess on their relationship is spot-on." He stepped forward and wedged Carmelita against the granite counter top and placed his paws on either side her hips; his lips nearing her ears. "I doubt...I doubt they've ever..." his voice husky, "made love to one another."

Her ear twitched to his breath brushing against the soft little hairs around the pointed cone. She lowered her lashes, blinking a few times as she felt him behind her. Her lips parted, but it took her a moment for words to come to her. "I...you would think someone...as passionate as Scarlet, would have a lover to truly satisfy her. Funny...isn't it?"

Her voice was somewhere between a whisper and a breathed string of statements as she rested one of her paws over his on her right hip. "Very funny," he murmured in agreement. "But it's kind of sad." The ocelot was hesitant at first, but he placed a paw on her side, just above her own paw. "I would have thought that she would have found someone by now."

He shivered slightly, and he let himself envelope her gently, another arm encircling her waist as his breath rushed past her ear. She drew a sharp breath through her nose, feeling his roaming paws and as his body went ridged, waiting for her to either approve or disapprove the motion. She batted her lashes once more and accepted his paw resting on her stomach, moving her head back and turning it slightly as her ear brushed against his face. "I'm not the kind of person who would just do that. I think...I think mating should be a shared experience for both, something reserved for those you...feel real strongly towards.

"It just...seems really silly to me. Sex should always be a meaningful thing for each other. Right?"

"Sex isn't something that's just for fun," Dorian rumbled. "It has a purpose. It's there to strengthen the bonds between two people who care deeply for one another...it's not something that should be taken lightly." He exhaled and then inhaled as Carmelita's ear brushed against his face, his teeth flashing out to gently scrape against the tender flesh of the vixen's ear. "It's a gift that shouldn't be taken for granted...or rushed....because I'm sure it's well worth the wait."

She nodded; shivering to the soft nip he had given her ear. Licking her lips, she found her mouth surprisingly dry as her legs seemed to be strangely weak. Dorian could feel her slight trembling as he placed his lips against her cheek, and planted a soft kiss, his grip on her tightening as if to hold her steady against him. It wasn't until the second gentle kiss that Dorian realized that his own body was shivering, although he knew it was from anticipation and excitement, but like the officer he was, he kept it in check and slowly but surely stopped his shivering. Carmelita raised her shoulders a moment as she felt his lips against her cheek, finding the feeling pleasing.

Feeling his fingers curl a little tighter around her, her tail bristled a bit as it gave a sharp twitch. Feeling his quivering body against hers, her ears laid back against her thick forest of dark curly hair as she exhaled a sharp breath from her nose. Slowly he let his right paw let go of her hip while his left arm stayed firmly in place, and he used it to cup Carmelita's chin as he guided her gently pointed muzzle to his own, their lips meeting softly for the first time in a long time. The Constable couldn't describe the euphoric feelings that were coursing through his body, and it was all he could do to keep them in check; he didn't want to take this much further lest Carmelita push him away. The first thought that came to her mind was simply, "_what am I doing?_"

Her fur bristled even farther out, her tail wagged erratically and her toes clenched slightly within her boots. She was surprised, caught off guard by his forwardness, but found the taste of his lips to be sweet. Her lips slowly moved against his for a moment as they enveloped in the reignited flames that had burned during their last evening together months ago. The ocelot let his tongue slide over her lips as he felt her press back hungrily into the kiss, and he was pleased with the response. His arm tightened just slightly, almost possessively pulling her closer, but he halted before her pulled her too close; not wanting to disturb the moment. Dorian knew he would have plenty of time to spin her around and toss her up onto the counter-top and ravish her when they got married.

If they got married, he grumpily reminded himself. But that thought still couldn't dull this moment. Her eyes squinted shut, feeling the moist appendage slide across her lips, to which she then returned the favor. Her second thought of the evening was simply _"Whoa"_ as if delving into a sweet hot fudge sundae, or letting go and giving into the tempting plate of brownies left in front of her, she jumped farther into Dorian and let her cautious nature when it came to intimacy fly out the open window, if only for a moment. She tried to remain civil as possible, not wanting to be made out as easy or desperate. It worked wonders on her shyness, playing around with her paws against him to get more of a "feel" for him.

She was timid, but why? Just moments ago she was all over Sly, even if it was in a joking manner. But she hadn't felt so nervous, as tense around him as she had this moment with Dorian. It was scary…but it was nothing short of satisfying. Thoughts of Sly were temporarily forgotten, with her control abandon, Dorian followed suite, letting his tongue slide into her muzzle to dance with the vixen's own, pulling her tight against him as he felt his primal side slowly bubble to the surface.

This was exhilarating, the ocelot had to remind himself, but he had to keep himself in check, and he could slowly feel his control slipping. Slowly breaking off the kiss and relinquishing his position behind Carmelita probably had to be one of the hardest things Dorian ever had to do. The Academy exam had been nothing compared to the confliction that played through his mind. He knew, however, that he couldn't be too straight forward...as much as he wanted Carmelita to choose him, getting friendlier than what would be allowed wouldn't earn him any points. He also knew that him breaking it off would show self-control and devotion, which he undoubtedly had...it just wouldn't hurt to reinforce those qualities.

"Carmelita...you always said you wanted to wait on something like this..." He murmured as he turned her around gently, "I think we should stop before this gets too far out of hand." Damn did Dorian enjoy the vixen's paws sliding over his body, and he could only imagine what it would feel like without any clothes on...just the two of them. She breathed; a wave of what she could only describe as vertigo washed over her as she placed a trembling palm on her chest. She licked her lips, tasting the sweetness that still clung to their love bruised surface.

She swallowed a lump in her throat as she found her voice. "I...yes, that would be best." She breathed again. "T-thank you, Dorian. I'm sorry if I was...drawing you in like that. But...when you kiss me..." she blushed deeper, cupping her burning cheeks as she pressed her lips tight together.

Thoughts of him began drowning out the charming visage of a certain raccoon that had plagued her mind for years. But she found a little peace away from the thoughts of Sly as she fantasized about the man standing in front of her. "You don't have to..." he smiled weakly. "That had to be the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. And...that's the feeling I had that night we shared our first kiss."

Dorian took a deep breath and turned around so he could rearrange his trousers to better conceal his arousal, and when he turned around, he could definitely smell her desire from even five feet away. He swallowed a lump in his throat as he grabbed the half-melted milk from the steaming hot water and poured some of it into a blender as he added some strawberry yogurt, ice, and various assortments of frozen fruits. "Do I....do I really do that to you?" He asked hesitantly as he looked over his shoulder at Carmelita, noting her hazed expression and what he could only describe as a lusty gaze. She rubbed her cheeks, her face flushing brightly and she could no longer conceal it.

She nodded hesitantly. "I...can't help how I feel. What you do...it's completely unique from anything else I've ever felt. It's really nice, Dorian. I really like how you make me feel." She turned away, shaking out her ebony locks as she tried to situate herself.

"Well...I guess it would be fair for me to say, if I haven't already said it a dozen times before...you make me feel the same way." He smiled, flattening his ears as he turned the blender on, and much to his surprise, it was extremely quiet. "Wow...you got the expensive noise canceling blender....could I borrow this? It would make Blue's morning protein shakes much more bearable." He smiled, pulling out two glasses before giving them a quick rinse; grabbing the container and pouring the smoothies into them.

"Cheers," she murmured as they clinked glasses. Taking a sip from the fruity frosted beverage, she couldn't help but glance through the transparent glass as her eyes slowly moved over his body. By this time, Dorian had already removed his leather jacket and body armor after he set his glass down on the table, revealing a fur-tight black t-shirt, which was neatly tucked into his pants by a brown leather belt.

"I do know how to make a good smoothie," He grinned as he picked his glass up, and his nose twitched as he smelt his own pheromones seep into the air; after all his leather had done a fine job of keeping it contained. "God, Carmelita, I'm sorry..." He smiled sheepishly, "That's probably playing havoc with your senses." He moved over to the couch and sat down, leaning over to crack open the window slightly; which he now noticed that it looked to be resistant to rifle-caliber rounds.

"New modifications," she quickly explained. "I have Interpol to thank for that as well." She took another drink of her smoothie, pulling in her lips to the sweet, yet tart taste. "The smoothie's a hell of a lot better than I could ever make. And sure, you can borrow the blender. I don't use it too often."

Her eyes darted up from his torso, back to his face, and then glanced lower still. Trying to control her wandering irises, she drew the glass back up again and batted her lashes in a flurry of blinks. Dorian looked up at her, and he definitely noticed her eyes watching him, and he placed his glass on the table and stood up. With a few quick paces, he was nose to nose with her, his paws resting on her hips with a little more authority than before, "It seems to me that we're both driving each other crazy," he murmured, his lips grazing against her own. "One last kiss, and it's off to bed for the both of us...or I'm afraid that we both might wake up in the same bed.

"I can take the couch," he spoke softly. She leaned her mouth a little closer to his, feeling one another's soft lips brush against themselves as she drew in a breath and nodded. Inching forward, she tilted her head and pushed deeper into his mouth for one last burst of blissful energy. Dorian let a paw slide up and cup the back of her head, his fingers sliding through her silken locks as he let his tongue gently enter her muzzle. He could feel his desire start to rise again, and he disdainfully, and slowly broke the kiss; noting that their lips seemed to stick together even as they pulled apart.

His breathing was heavy, and he gave the back of her thigh, just below her bottom, a gentle swat. "Now off to bed, and take your smoothie with you, we have work in the morning, and the couch is mine. If I wake up and you're in it, I won't complain, but I will be sure to let you know to get out of it." The ocelot said jokingly, stepping away and making a beeline for the window before opening it all the way, sticking his head outside to get some fresh air before his patience broke. She looked over her shoulder as she stood in the doorway to her bedroom, watching the man lean out of the window for a pull of fresh night air and she blinked slowly, reopening her eyes as they seemed to flash with the glistening night light of the moon and street lights.

"Good night, Dorian. And don't be so sure of yourself. If the time comes when you find me on the couch with you...will it really be that easy for you to just say 'get off?'" She gave him a smirk, letting the last statement roll off her tongue. And with a flick of her tail towards him; she lightly stepped off to her room, gently closing the door behind her.

"See you in the morning....boss ma'am." He grinned, as he looked up at what stars he could see, and praying to God that he gets the chance to try and say 'get off the couch'.

* * *

"I don't want to hear it, Indigo." Scarlet stormed out into the living room of Dorian's home, the malamute trotting behind her. "You're being ridiculous." Pyrite was watching the scene from sitting on the couch, Tom keeping a watchful eye on the youth. The jackal tried to retain focus as he continued talking to Gold.

"Now then, Gold, can you tell me anything else from Coal's networks. Where he operates, where his source of income is located?" The cheetah scratched his chin.

"Well," he began to say, only for his words to be drowned out from another shout from the pair behind them.

"It's always the same with you, every new man you see you instantly fall in love with the bastard! You hate them, you love them, you hate me, you love me. Get the message straight for once, dammit!"

"I don't hate you Indigo, I despise you. You're being impossible and-

"Oh, so I'm the impossible one? I'm the one causing your discomfort; the man you've shared your life with is making you uncomfortable. What the hell is so uncomfortable?! It's uncomfortable for you to be cavorting around with other men? I'll take a guess, no, I _know_ Dorian doesn't make you uncomfortable!" She was about to retort, when she placed a paw to her racing heart. Her breathing began to quicken as Blue's eyes widened.

"My…my," she tried to speak.

"Ah…so you need my help once more, hmm?" Blue watched her for a moment, biting down his lip as he struggled for himself to go and find her purse. Opening up the red leather bag, he fished out her prescription and poured out two small pale blue pills, sliding them into her paws. She eagerly took them, patting her chest to ease her beating heart. "Consider that I decided not to help you, Scarlet…what then?"

She glared at him as she pushed her way through him, grabbing her coat and purse as she stormed out the door. Blue reached for the door, but drew his paw back from the knob and hissed through his nostrils. "Seems pretty boy's got some girl troubles, eh?" Gold cracked a smirk, his cocked brows rising up in amusement. Blue's shoulders went ridged as he slowly turned his neck around, leering to the youth over his shoulder, his eyes smoldering like two blue embers.

"I need a cigarette," he said, trotting out the back door to the wheat fields out back, standing near Booker's firing range. Tom returned his attention back to Gold, holding a small notepad between his fingers as his gaze probed the youth.

"Well then, now that this is all settled, let's focus back to the matter at hand, shall we?" Gold turned back around, sitting forward with his paws laced together, glancing back up to the sandy haired Englishman with a friendly smile. "Coal is operating in France…awfully large country to hide just one person, so any light you could shed on his whereabouts…" As the conversation continued inside, outside, Scarlet huffed, chocking down the fire that welled up in her chest, warm moisture beginning to coat her eyes. Climbing into Indigo's Cadillac, she hesitatingly grabbed the steering wheel and plunged her duplicate key into the ignition.

The engine shuddered, then roared to life as she looked behind her and backed out of the driveway. Blue's pointed ears perked up to the familiar hum of his car's engine and he sighed out a stream of tobacco smoke from his lips. "Women…I swear to God…" He looked up at the star speckled sky, then to the wrapped stick of tobacco clutched between his fingers and he closed his eyes, crumbling the cigarette in his paw, feeling the burning tip singe a spot in his palm, yet his fist remained clenched, grimacing through the biting pain until he slowly unwrapped his fingers. Letting the damaged cigarette drop on the lawn, he glanced at his now soot caked palm, seeing a small black spot where the base of his index finger connected, a small dab of red slowly bubbling out of the ash caked wound. On the other side, just exiting the suburban area, Scarlet rode uncomfortably in the car.

Her eyes were fixed forward as her brows were bearing down in a narrow eyed leer, seeing the dancing flashes of street lights as she passed them, entering the city. Stopping at a red light, she rubbed her temples and sighed, leaning back in her seat, waiting for the flash of green as she drove away. She had no preset destination in mind, only just to gain some distance from Blue and hopefully drown him out from her vision. Her paws shook as she took them off the wheel, wiggling her fingers and clenching her fists for a moment to try and shake the shakes. Turning sharply to the right, she bared down a street of no particular importance.

Glancing out the window, she suddenly stopped after turning out into the establishment's parking area. She sighed, gazing at the neon strings that contorted into signs as the inviting door that was left ajar beckoned for her to enter. Killing the engine, she opened the door and climbed out of the car, walking into the bar. "Where better to drown one's self from unpleasantness," she thought, walking toward the bar. As she expected, almost every eye was on her the moment she stepped inside.

Men gazed upon her, their drinks perpetually suspended in midair as they abruptly halted their route towards their lips. Most women gave her an eye for stealing the gaze of their men, while others had quite different opinions about the woman. Scarlet thrived on the moment shortly before taking a seat at the bar, crossing her legs and tapping her polished claws on the bar table. The man behind the table quickly glanced over her for a moment before leaning over the table. "What'd ya want there, beautiful?"

Scarlet fluttered her lashes a moment before responding. "Martini, vodka martini, very dry, with extra olives, please." The thick eyebrows of the barman rose as the corner of his lip curled up in amusement.

"Sure thing, darling," and he delve into his wares, beginning to mix the drink. She turned over her shoulder for a moment, taking in her surroundings as she swept her tail around, letting the thick brush rest on her lap. The man behind the bar passed her the thin glass and she took a long sip from it. "Anything else I can get you?" Scarlet racked her eyes up and down him for a moment in an analyzing way, finding him to be quite the charming little man.

"I'll let you know," she purred to him, to which he nodded his head and tended to the other customers. She wasn't interested in picking anyone up; she wanted nothing to do with men for the rest of the night. Looking around her surroundings again, she hummed to herself in approval. She had never stepped in here, but was always curios whenever she had passed by it. She found it quite a pleasant atmosphere, until it was shattered however.

The rustling of movement to her right along with the sound of a stool's legs dragging against the floor caused a mental sigh of annoyance to flutter through her mind as she saw someone climb onto the stool. "Well," the voice said, it was rather effeminate sounding with the highness and the over developed French accent. Scarlet kept her head lowered as her chin rested on her palm, trying to show her immediate disinterest. "I was about to lose my faith in this place, and then what do you know, but an angel comes walking on in here." He chuckled to himself, lowering his muzzle to light the cigarette clutched in his lips.

The smell of tobacco smoke reminded her of Indigo, and she slowly turned away more. "My name's Antoine, can I ask for yours while I buy you another drink?" Scarlet nodded.

"You can," she stated quickly. The man next to her waited for a response and drew back slightly as she didn't say anything.

"Um...are you going to tell me your name?"

"You said if you could ask me for my name, and you can. But I never said I would give it to you, now did I?" He chuckled, slapping his palm on the bar table.

"Playing hard to get just tells me you're worth the trouble. Please, _may _I ask for your name?" The vixen ran her finger around the top of her glass, plucking the green olive from it and popping it into her mouth. She turned around, seeing the brown furred rodent nod his head toward her. She closed her eyes and drew in a breath, despite her better judgment, "Angeline", she stated disdainfully.

He grinned. "A pleasure, Angeline."

"Oh, the pleasure is all mine," the fox fibbed. "And I'd rather have the pleasure of enjoying my drink, so if you'd please…" A series of guttural noises signaled that a few other men heard her retort, a few reptiles at another table chortled to themselves.

"Tough luck, Jacques Clouseau, Cest la vie." The alligator opened his long narrow mouth as he raised his glass, laughing along with his reptilian company and pouring his beer into his gaping fang filled jaws. The rodent stood up, a tinge of anger in his eyes as he stormed away. She turned and gave a smirk to the green lizards and raised her glass to them. The alligator returned the gesture and drizzled the rest of his drink down.

Scarlet sighed, looking forward, probing through the walls of bottles and brick as her mind wandered. She wasn't used to this, going off to try and enjoy herself without anyone around. She didn't like the feeling, trying desperately to take her mind off Indigo or Dorian or Sly, or any man in the bar she sat in. She wasn't enjoying herself, no matter how hard she told herself to relax, take a breather. Finishing her drink, she raised her paw to the bartender, the dog's right ear flicking up to her direction as he glanced to her, setting up another martini for her.

Her growing anxiety coaxed her to continue ordering drinks, collecting a neat little pile of toothpicks that were skewered in her olives. She saw her sight growing foggy as she felt a wave of giddiness mixed with contempt wash over her. She was happy, yet annoyed all at the same time. Her tense body began to unwind as she lowered her shoulders and let her lids sag lazily over her gleaming green gaze. The red fox let her tail contently wag behind her from within the length of her red coat.

She rested her head upon her paw once more, stopping herself from lifting her paw once more for another drink. Looking at her bill, she grimaced and blinked a few moments to try and focus on the amount. Fishing out her wallet, she laid the bills onto the small black tray, an extravagant amount for five martinis, but what was there to do? Stepping off the stool with exceptional grace for one who had just ingested a moderate supply of Russian firewater, she flipped her hair back and shouldered her purse. She stepped to the blue Cadillac and wrapped her fingers around the jingling keys in her purse, sighing as she let them drop back into the confines of her handbag.

"I…can't drive like this…" she uttered, her voice creamy and husky with a soft aroma of fermented sugars that would make a corpse cringe. She looked at the faint reflection in the window of the beautiful red and white face, blinking her eyes as she watched the reflection mimic her every movement. She saw the gorgeous round cheeks, the small, delicate pointed muzzle that ended in an adorable little coal black nose. But it was the eyes that offset everything. They revealed a torn and tormented being, her lips pursing up in distain. Sliding against the car, she rested her back and head against the side of the glossy blue vehicle, the cobalt color driving her mind mad about the man she wanted to forget right now.

Tears slowly rolled down the sides of her head as she looked up at the dark night sky, unable to see the sparkling majesty of the stars with so many lights in the city. The blue color triggered another image in her mind. She saw a dark blue sweater, lush grey fur that covered a solid, athletic body with a blue hat, a pair of dexterous fingers clutching the brim as they pulled the cap down, securing it to a handsome visage. "Cooper…Sly…Sly…" she whimpered. She scanned every building, every shadowed corner for a sign of the elusive raccoon, but she closed her eyes as she found no shadowed form bounding from rooftop to rooftop.

She begged for something to just lift her up and take her home. She wished for an angel to fly down from the sky and lift her off the cold hard ground and carry her back to a hotel, an apartment. Just some place dark and quiet with a bed and four walls so she could be comfortable and alone for a moment. Her back went ridged as her eyes quickly snapped open. A sudden foreboding sensation crept up her back as she darted her gaze back and forth.

A dark figure, hunched over the edge of a small square structure that sprouted up across the street from the parking lot she lay in leered at her like a vulture waiting for her to die so it would swoop in with dark wings and begin stripping the skin from her bones. It leapt from the building, landing lightly on its feet as it slid down the side of the building. Her first panic induced thoughts were one of Coal's men, another one of his disciples that was on the hunt for her. Her mind fascinated tales of him torturing her to lead him to Dorian's home where he would kill the lot of them with one fell swoop. Her, in her drunken stupor would be unable to defend herself against one trained by Black.

Sucking in a breath, her heart jumped as the stalking form walked into the light of a street lamp. The face was blotted out in shadow, but there was no mistake, she saw the tall, slim form of Sly Cooper staring at her, as if appearing to answer her prayers. With as much coordination as she could muster, she pushed off the dark ground and ran toward him. His pace quickened into a jog as she threw her arms around him as they collided. "S-Scarlet," Sly breathed with confusion.

"What are you doing here? Are you alright?" Burying her face into his chest, she nuzzled him and choked down sobs.

"Just get me out of here, please."

"Is someone after you?"

"Just get me out of her, Sly. Please!" He nodded, patting her head.

"Ok." She handed him the keys. They both climbed into the blue car and Sly drove away with the vixen in tow, lazily resting her head against the window, her drowsy eyes deathly staring out of the glass. They had no destination, she just wanted away, anywhere than sobbing in the parking lot of a bar lying on the cold hard ground. Pulling into an alley, Sly turned off the engine and looked to Scarlet, the vixen having dozed off.

Shaking her gently, "Hey…hey, Scarlet," he whispered, and she murmured to herself as she woke up. "What are you doing out here?" She blinked at him, wavering in her seat. Sly immediately labeled her to be drunk as he cupped her cheek, looking at her drowsy reddened eyes and catching a whiff of alcohol on her breath.

"I…Indigo and I had a fight."

"I'm sorry to hear that." She blew out a breath from pursed lips as she shrugged it off.

"Who cares," she slurred. "I don't need him. He's b-being…s-stupid." She paused a few times in midsentence as her body jolted to suppressed hiccups, causing her words to come out in a slight stutter. "I d-don't need the sh-shmuck.

"Not when I have someone like you. You…you're really nice to me, Sly." The raccoon frowned slightly as he rubbed his thumb against her cheek, wiping away the moisture from her tears.

"So…I guess taking you back to Dorian's is out of the question, huh?" She nodded.

"Hell yes it is. I-I don't wanna go back, please. Not right now…k?" He nodded. "Can I go back to your h-house? You know…like last time?" Cooper slowly shook his head.

"Scarlet…"

"I-I won't be any trouble, honest. I swear." She ran her fingers across her lips as if she were zipping them together. "I won't say a thing," she whispered, suddenly cupping her nose and snorting in laughter. Sly couldn't help but laugh along with her.

"How much did you drink, now?" She hiccupped and cupped her mouth in another fit of giggles.

"What, you my mother? I'm a g-grown woman; I can drink as much as I want, dammit." She then leaned forward, gliding her lips towards his. "Kiss me."

"Oh…I don't think so." She hiccupped again.

"C'mon, it'll be nice. Just one, k?"

"Scarlet, you're drunk, it wouldn't be right. Besides, you know well enough I'm reserved." She blew out another breath as her lips flapped together with the sigh, a wave of vodka pheromones stinging the raccoon's nostrils.

"That's ok, I said I wouldn't tell. I wanna get back at Blue; he's b-being a dick head. Now kiss me." Sly could only smile and slowly shake his head.

"No Scarlet, no. I'm sorry." She nodded, a smile on her face.

"That's ok; we'll still be friends, right?" Cooper nodded at her, patting her shoulder.

"Of course, life's too boring without ya, Scarlet." She hummed in delight as she leaned against him. "Ready to go home?" She shook her head.

"Can I spend the night at Sly's house tonight, mommy? I've been an awf-awfully good girl, I did all my chores and e-everything." The master thief sighed, resting his paws on the steering wheel. "What'll it hurt?"

"Probably a lot. Look, Scarlet, you stayed over one night at my home before. Now, how would I explain to everyone when my friends see me carrying you into our house, laughing your tail off and vodka on your breath?" She teetered in her seat, fluttering her eyes as she continued blankly staring at him. He glanced to her, then turned the car back on and pulled out of the alley.

"You're s-such a tease, you know that?" Cooper could only press his lips together to acknowledge her statement. "Dammit…I-it's not fair. You're sitting right here, and I can't so much as lay a finger on you. It's like grabbing a fish and holding it out of the water."

"I don't think you'll suffocate from not sleeping with me, Scarlet. You have Blue, and even if you two don't agree on everything all the time, you can agree on the fact that he still cares about you. All good couples fight from time to time." Scarlet gave with a slight gasp of a chuckle and leaned back into her seat. Sly continued regardless of her skepticism that Blue really did care about her or not.

"There really is no such thing as a story book marriage 'lived happily ever after.' It's the movies that say marrying your dream girl is the end; you've accomplished your goal in life. But when you marry someone, the story's just getting started."

"Blue doesn't intend to g-get married. Almost a whole decade together…and he's n-never even put thought into popping the question." Cooper frowned again, the tips of his ears lowering as he continued driving, his eyes forward as they darted around.

"I never did think of Blue as the type to get married. But that doesn't mean he doesn't love you, Scarlet."

"Then how the hell am I s-supposed to take it as?"

"Maybe he's scared. Maybe he doesn't think he'll be the husband you deserve. There could be a bunch of reasons. Now don't tell me he didn't take the effort to help you get that arm of yours reset when we first met. He could have easily left you there, I'm positive you both sought out each other the moment you got injured."

"Not the police, not the hospital, not even contacting Coal first and asking for assistance. You both went to each other first." Scarlet's eyes fluttered shut as she watched the dancing lights of the city zoom past her. She nodded.

"Yes…we both looked for each other above everything else. B-but…I…I don't know. Screw it; j-just take me home." Sly nodded and soon the Cadillac pulled up into Dorian's driveway. The porch light lit up as shaded form drew open the door.

Indigo slowly stepped down from the small concrete steps and walked to the passenger door, his brows lifting as he watched Sly Cooper emerge from his car and pull open the passenger side door. Scarlet got out herself, wobbling on unsteady legs as she leaned against the car. She pushed Sly's helping arms away. The vixen moved to the dog, raising her chin to him as she squared her shoulders. She began leaning to the left, the heels of her shoe sliding against the concrete driveway as she was about to fall.

The malamute quickly reacted as he threw his arms out and under her, catching her in a protective cradle before her hip met the ground. "Well," he said quietly. "I doubt I'll get used to this." She looked up at him while she lay in his arms and gave him a glare.

"Just help me up, I can walk." Blue cringed to the smell of her breath and shook his head. He looked up to Cooper who stood there for a moment, his paws in his pockets, glancing up as he noticed Blue move his head.

"Cooper," he nodded. "I'll negate the fact that whenever Scarlet here saunters off, you always seem to 'find' her. The fact that she's also drunk doesn't boast well for your standings with me." Sly shrugged.

"Take it how you want, Indigo. You and I both know I wouldn't be low enough to sneak my way into a drunken girl's pants, especially one who's already taken by someone else."

"A good thing, too." He sighed, seeing the vixen had fallen asleep in his arms. Lifting her up, the two males shared an awkward silence for a moment. "Although, I am glad to know she's safe. And if she would have to have ended up in some other man's arms, I'm glad it was yours instead of some slime trying to get inside of her while she was passed out."

Cooper grinned. "Well, I have a weakness when it comes to beautiful women. But I still care about Scarlet's safety too. But you two seriously need to start patching things up, I don't know how much longer I can hold out before I give in to her charms." Blue smiled, narrowing his eyes as they began to glower angrily at the raccoon.

"Well…sleeping beauty needs her rest." He turned away, heading for the door. The dog looked up, noticing a cheetah's head leaning out of the doorway. Gold quickly darted back into the house. After a few steps, he turned his head back around, throwing his words over his shoulder.

"And Cooper," the canine said, Sly stopping as he pulled his cane from out of the Cadillac. Indigo hesitated as if physically struggling to move his lips to form words. "Thank you." Cooper smirked and turned back around, walking away from the house. As Blue watched the thief depart, he entered the house and placed the sleeping vixen onto the guest room mattress, taking off her coat and shoes.

"It's a strange thing," a distinct British accent muttered over his shoulders. Blue's ears flickered as he moved his eyes to the left. "Women, that is." Blue stood up and turned to the jackal who smiled warmly in greeting.

"And exactly what does someone like you know about women?" Tom laughed, cringing slightly as he remembered he had to lower his voice for Scarlet. Ushering Blue out of the room, the closed the door behind themselves and continued the conversation.

"Did you not notice me conversing with a female ghost when Mr. White paid us his dubious visit? Everyone basically now knows I had a wife in a past life who is now sadly gone. If I were you, I'd listen to my advice I'd offer you."

"You? Offer me advice to women?" Blue's chuckling quickly stopped as Tom swatted him upside the head.

"Exactly you daft idiot. Listen to reason, I am older, more experienced, and have been married, happily, for a number of years. I doubt you have the nuts capable of sailing those treacherous waters, hmm?" Blue remained silent. "Take it from me, a man who has been through quite a bit, and has had himself quite the steamy romp with his spouse since you were still kicking around in your mum's tummy."

Blue grimaced. "You don't have to go into any details about your little 'romps', thank you. The last thing I need is a metal image of two middle aged-"

He was stifled by another slap to the side of the head. "No, you nutter! A happy relationship is more than pouncing your good lady. You have to talk to them as well. Quite a complex subject for you to grasp, I know. But sacrifices must be made."

"Let's simplify women a bit for you. They like to multiply things. Give a woman a house, and she'll give you a home. Give her love, and she'll give you a baby. So if you give her crap, she'll give you a ton of shit, is this all making sense to you?" The dog glanced to the door, then back to the jackal and nodded.

"I guess so," he uttered.

"You really have to guess? You have a solid love life with her, I see. But you still seriously lack qualities essential for a good lasting relationship. Do both of yourselves a favor, take a break from the hanky-panky, and just listen to what one another says. She wants to talk, listen. And make sure she listens when you want to talk to her about something.

"Let everything out, if anything is on your mind, you tell her. Being your mate, she'll listen, and you shouldn't have to feel embarrassed about talking to her about anything. If you do, either she's not right for you, or you both need to work on your communication skills." The jackal smirked, smacked the side of the dog's head once more, and placed his paws onto his shoulders, boring his gold eyes into Blue's ice blue ones. "And who knows, all this effort you put into her might pay off in the long run, yeah?"

Blue nodded slowly. "Yeah."

"Jolly good!"

* * *

A soft breeze tugs at the light curtains adorning the window. Carmelita Montoya Fox, feeling the tickling chill of the cold on her back, snuggles deeper into the blankets as she continues to softly breathe in rhythm. The cold air was accompanied by a coil of fog, the silvery cloud slithered into the room, trailing up the corners of the walls and against the carpet floor. A wispy tendril slithers up the edge of the bed, rolling across Fox's body, light as a feather as it seems to grab the edge of the blankets. The light sheets slowly move farther up her form, covering her bare shoulder as the vixen moans softly and nuzzles her head deeper into the pillow.

The fog suddenly moves to the center of the carpeted room, rolling around and swirling like a maelstrom, forming an ethereal formation. Ivory White materializes out from the smoke, clutching his glasses and adjusting them on the bridge of his snout. Blinking his white eyes, he silently glides towards the edge of the bed, looking down at the woman sleeping soundly in the mattress. Reaching out a paw, he brushes his fingers gently against her cheek, the tips of his fingers disappearing through her face until he pulls them away, the swirling mist reshaping into his paw. Raising his brows slightly, his lips seem to curl down in a more somber, warming expression.

"_Innocence…" _he utters, barely above the noise of a whisper. _Beauty and innocence is so rare these days. But you…you hold true beauty in you. As beautiful inside as you are out." _He reached out once more, slowly cupping her cheek with a cold paw, letting his palm rest just at her cheek, giving the impression that he was holding her head. Unable to feel the physical contact, he blinked his eyes as his long whiskers twitched.

"_I am in your dreams, Miss Fox," _and he sank his paw into her head, the limb disappearing into her mind as her body began to shiver, her eyes closing down tight as her legs and tail twitched erratically. White's eyes were closed as he concentrated, slithering around in her subconscious. Memories, even ones she had no recollection of that lay dormant in her mind were exposed to him. Her deepest fears, her fantasies and desires, her most cherished secrets and thoughts. A twister of emotions swirled around at his probing fingertips until he stopped.

"_There you are,"_ and he lunged plunged in, Carmelita's body jolting in a spasm as she lay still asleep. The dark apartment bedroom was replaced in scenery unlike any ever witnessed. There were rolling plains, grass that glinted like shards of emerald embedded into the ground as it fluttered and rolled with the wind, causing a rolling, wave like movement from the light of the bright sun that glinted off every individual blade when in the right position.

* * *

_Carmelita Fox lay on a hill of grass, her body absorbing the rays of the sun like a flower as it warmed her fur. Small white and yellow flowers dotted the grass, flowing with the rolling winds that carried the scents of fruits and moisture. _

_She slowly opened her eyes, shielding them from the sun as she sat up, stretching her back as she raised her arms to the sky. The sun quickly sank into the horizon, casting the meadow in a beautiful starry night. The scenery shifted, the ground flattening as trees and brush began sprouting from the floor, encircling her little clearing from where she lie. She now stood, entrenched in a giant lake, a roaring waterfall cascading down a hill as it spread mist in every direction, shrouding the clearing in silvery moisture. Clad in a bathing suit, she moved around in the water, feeling at peace in the warm crystal clear lake. _

_As she glided in the water, the rippling waves slid across the glass like surface of the water, coxing her to look around, seeing not a soul except hers through the thick mist. Freezing as she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist from behind, she sighs as she feels a solid chest flush against her back. Feeling the warmth of the firm chest behind her, she sighs in comfort, resting her paws on his that are placed on her tummy. Craning her head back, her neck is assaulted with tender nips and kisses, her tail coming to wrap around the male's waist behind her. His dancing paws run up her stomach, as they slide up to her shoulders, rubbing them softly as he buries his snout into her neck, inhaling deeply. _

_The distinct rumble of thunder is heard, Carmelita looking up at the sky as she see thick black clouds rolling over the sky, blotting out the stars and the moon. Lightning flashes as the lancing arc of light strikes the ground close to their pool. The vixen quickly turns around; finding the body that caressed her moment ago had all but vanished, unable to remember his identity. Another lash of lightning and the tall stock of a tree is engulfed in flames, the vixen jumping from the water and running from the blaze. Grass gives way to cobblestone, the rain beginning to fall in a torrential wave of droplets as heavy as stones as the water seems to weigh her down, forcing her legs to bend as she tried to find shelter. _

_The large looming figure of a warehouse invites her in, sheltering her from the rain as the heavy droplets smack against the large glass windows. She breathes hard, shaking the moisture from her fur and she suddenly realizes she's fully dressed. Looking around her surroundings, everything is grey and bland, the concrete, the sky outside, even the water tailing down the windows like a million tears holds a grey tar like viscosity. Then she notices, the rain ceases as the grey droplets suddenly begin to crystallize into ice, clinging to the windows as droplets are replaced by flakes of snow. The puddle of water that was the moisture from her fur begins to harden to resemble a thin sheet of glass on the floor, the vixen shattering it by stepping lightly on it with her booted sole. _

_She's able to see her breath as more mist rolls across the floor of the warehouse, rising up and giving shape. Faces she recognized stare at her, dead hollow eyes from her past composed of swirling cloud bore into her. "Carmelita…" they moan, holding out their arms as they stagger towards her. She gasps, the breath being sucked from her lungs as she runs for the doors, kicking them open as they were coated in a thick layer of ice. Shattering the coat of frost, she falls into a mound of snow, looking up from lying on the hill of frost, seeing no shadowy shapes hungrily lunging after her like starved zombie like monstrosities. _

_She looks forward, staring at a pair of shoes she had not noticed before. The white polished glossy dress shoes cause her to glance up more, the shoes belonging to a pair of white clad legs which stretched upward. The snow white visage of an albino weasel stares down at her, his paws held within his white coat. His form was almost invisible to her by his white fur and clothing in the snowy background. A pair of brilliant grey eyes stares at her chocolate brown irises as he pulls a paw from his pocket and offers it to her, to which the vixen clasps it and she's hoisted up from the biting snow. _

_She tried to speak to him, but as she moved her mouth, not a single sound was heard. The weasel smiled, stretching his lips across his long narrow muzzle as he patted her cheek. His paw was cold to the touch as it sent shivers down her back, and she suddenly felt very nervous. His eyes seemed to cloud over; the grey irises completely vanish and were left with completely bald eyeballs, the white orbs boring into her. She quickly shook off his paws and ran, her feet crunching in the snow until she brought her foot down and fell through the ground, a sinkhole of snow swallowing her up as she fell in darkness. _

_She didn't know how long she tumbled downward, but as she collided with solid ground, she picked herself up and gasped as she saw the very same surroundings of the warehouse she had just escaped from. Shadowy forms began dancing across the floors and walls, the shadows cast by bodies that weren't there, until they seemed to jump off the walls and walk towards her. Drawing away the dark colors of the shaded forms, they were revealed to be the death riddled faces of one's she knew. Many clad in tattered orange jumpsuits, the assembled group of people simply gazed at her, contempt, hatred, hunger, all these horrible emotions chiseled on their grizzled pale shallow faces. "Do you recognize them?" _

_She quickly turned around, seeing the same snow white weasel floating above her, his paws in the slash pockets of his coat. "They all remember you…every last one. Death has given them years of anger towards you. Balancing on the scale of purgatory, between life and death. They will not rest…there is no rest for the angry dead."_

_He lowered himself down onto the floor until his feet touched concrete; smiling as he pushed the bridge of his frameless glasses farther up his nose. "I am Mr. White. The dead call to me," he spoke slowly and quietly, an unearthly tone to his voice. "They show me…their anguish towards the living. You," he said, raising a finger towards Carmelita. _

"_You are the source of this anguish. The souls collected here, they hunger for you. You who brought them to justice, you who have ended their lives. All dreams…all thoughts…are now gone. And they wish for revenge._

"_I shall honor their wishes." He rose off the ground again, slowly levitating higher above her as he took a perch in midair, some twenty feet above her. "Now, you will feel the suffering and anguish of those you have killed." Almost immediately, the shades of familiar thugs and burglars and mass murders Carmelita Fox had dispatched throughout her career became animated. One took a step forward, a chameleon she had known as Adamska Shivokni, member of a Russian based mafia cartel was leering at her with hollow narrow eyes, the independent moving eyes darted around as he watched her move, the reptile circling around her as he withdrew a handle, flicking his wrist out and a flash of a blade switched out from the handle. _

_He had done a similar movement towards her as he lunged at her with the blade, costing him his life as she shot a hole through his left lung, but that happened years ago. Her heart raced, seeing more faces she recognized. Some were wearing the tattered remains of their clothing she had seen them in, while others wore the orange florescent jumpsuits worn by convicts. They formed a tight circle around her, pushing and shoving as occasionally they would jump out from the group and hold her still as the chameleon would try and take a stab at her. Carmelita flung herself away, her reflexes reduced to erratic movements as all her years of physical training were lost in her panicking mind. _

_Her most basic instinct of self preservation was the only thing that kept her body moving out of harm's way. The reptile dove for her, Carmelita jumping out of the way as Adamska disappeared. A calico feline then emerged from the group, combing back the black and orange splotched fur on his head, then quickly pulled out a firearm from his blazer. Carmelita heard the bangs and flashes of the gun as she tried to keep moving, the other ghosts yelling and slamming into her as she passed or came too near to the circle of thugs. The feline, she recognized him as an old mobster she heard her father had brought in some fifty years ago. _

_Calico "Socks" Mahoney they the papers had called him. The elder Fox had brought him in for fraud charges, but was released months later thanks to Al Capone's influences and the cat's ties to the mafia. Years later, Captain Fox hand killed him when Socks pulled a gun on the officer. The cat snickered, running up to the female and throwing punches at her, Carmelita feeling the solid blows fling her onto her back as he stood over her, gun lowered to her forehead. She threw her leg up and caught him between the legs, yet he only laughed as he disappeared into a wisp of smog. _

_A group of orange wearing thugs lunged at her from the group, pushing her and slamming into her, batting her around like a hockey puck. She growled, threw her leg out and caught all of them in a fierce round house, the forms lurching back as they too disappeared into fumes of silvery fog. More dived into the fray, the fox amazed of how many inmates there were, either killed by her own hand in self defense, or died in prison where she had stuck them. There was Bobby Deter, sentenced to the electric chair for murdering his wife and child. There was Alfonse Hollins; shot through the chest by Carmelita's sidearm after opening fire on her while she was in her squad car. _

_She even saw the black clad animal who had tried to kill her all those months ago when the hits from Coal first began to happen. The sniper in the under construction building next to her apartment she had shot in the night. Soon, the entire remains of the mob of undead thugs converged on her at once, tackling her and crushing her under a mass of cold shilling bodies. Ripping and tearing her way out, she kicked and punched, clawed and climbed her way away from them, their groping claws snagging her clothing and hair. She cried out, feeling like a rabbit cornered by a pack of drooling wolves as she watched Mr. White contently staring down at her from his perch above her. _

_She cried out as they lunged at her, disappearing and reappearing as they slashed at her, barked and howled at her like some crazed demons. Flashing in and out of existence, she turned one corner, seeing a man leveling a gun to her face, while she turned around once more, finding three more men brandishing knives and shanks. She rolled forward as a few people jumped at her and then disappeared. Some popped up out of the floor right in front of her as they tried to tackle her to the floor. Then, it all faded away._

_Every form disappeared utterly as if a strong breeze had blown them away, the tendrils of smoke coiling around until it disappeared completely. Then she watched the remaining person still left inside the warehouse. Mr. White, whom she was under the impression was dead for years suddenly disappeared, reappearing directly in front of her. She froze, then suddenly threw a punch with simply passed through his head. He grabbed her forearm, the vixen's heart stopping as she found him able to grab her like a solid being._

_He swung around her arm, delivering a kick to her that floored her. He then slowly walked up to her, clutched her by the neck, and hoisted her up off the floor. "What is it you fear, Carmelita Fox?" He spoke to her in a whisper as they were face to face, the vixen having little choice but to stare into his hollowed eyes. "Death? _

"_Failure?" He then smiled. "Or…loss?" He drove two fingers into her forehead, submerging his paw into her subconscious as he filled her mind with images. She watched as the images of those she loved, those she had ever cared about or ever knew. _

_Sly, Dorian, the Chief, Indigo Blue, Scarlet Crimson, Tom, her mother and father, and even Stanford Hesson, the wolf she had gone to the police academy with whom she had fallen for as he would tutor her, her heart sinking as she heard of his untimely demise. And then, she saw all these people, those she cared about, those she loved. She watched them die. They fell, into darkness as bullets ripped their lives away, barrels of handguns pressed to their temples as red splattered out the other side, their bodies hanging limply from rough cords pulling around their necks as they succumbed to torture, were beaten to a bloodied mess. Tears filled her eyes as they steamed down her cheeks as White withdrew his paw from her mind. "That is what is to happen should you and your allies fail. Everyone you knew and loved will be dead, the world will be controlled by a madman's selfish dream and the world will be thrown into servitude by his will." _

"_Coal…" Carmelita breathed. White nodded his head in agreement. _

"_I will be watching you, Carmelita Fox. Do not disappoint," He then drove his arm through her torso and she felt as if she were skewed by a spear of jagged steel._

* * *

And then, her eyes opened. The soft rays of the sun entered through her open window and she glanced at her alarm clock, having awoken an hour before it would have activated. She sat up in her bed, her fur matted to her body from sweat as she felt her chest, her neck, every inch of her body for any injury.

Sighing in relief, she wiped her brow and calmed her beating heart. "A dream…it was a dream," she whispered to herself. Pushing off her bed, she combed her fingers through her damp hair and walked towards the bathroom. On her way towards the shower stall, she glanced at her nightstand, seeing the black rectangle of her digital alarm clock, the red numbers glowing on its face. But what caught her attention was what was resting on top of it.

There was a square of white fabric, soft and light like silk. She picked up the small square piece of cloth and turned it over, her eyes burned holes into it as she saw, stitched into the silk in black thread, the dark silhouette of a large bird spreading its wings and baring its talons.

* * *

_Author's note: Kind of a deep, involving, emotional chapter with a bit of suspense and I guess you could say action. Anyway, there are hidden motives galore, we find that Mr. White has something cooking up in that enigmatic mind of his, and we get to see a little bit of Sterling Silver again from...god...chapter 7 and he has come to terms of being a ghost and wants to get back at Black. I really liked his character, and was kinda hoping I didn't kill him off as soon as I did and in such a bad way as well. Aw well, such is a writer's life, deciding who dies, who gets the girl, who wins and what the hell is going on. Speaking of getting the girl, we also get a bit of action for Dorian seeing as Sly got his bit of fun last chapter. _

_Not only does this help balance out everything for the Sly/Carm fans and the Dorian/Carm fans, but it also keeps us in mind that Dorian could still be a logical choice for the Inspector. I'm curious, what would the readers think if Carmelita chose Dorian? It certainly would be a unique idea, something no one else has read before. Would the world stop spinning? Would hell freeze over again? (Remember it did already when the Red Sox won the series.) Would my review section be flooded with hateful spite, or cheery flowery words of gratitude and praise? Speaking of hateful spite involving Dorian and Carmelita, where's my good buddy, Cerberusx? Been a long time since he's dropped me a review telling me how much he wants Dorian killed off. I think I already know you're answer, Cerb, but I wanna hear ya tell me what you think about the idea of Carmelita choosing Dorian over Sly.  
_

_And if that were to happen though, what would it do to Sly? He would remain a master thief of course, but what point would there be if he wouldn't enjoy the experience of Inspector Fox chasing after him, just the two of them? Would Scarlet leave Blue and she and Sly lived happily ever after? Well, there aren't too much worries because this isn't the end of the story, and like our good buddy Mr. Cooper said, lived happily ever after is just in the movies. But yeah, and what the hell is Tom up to?! You gotta remember, there's millions of things tangled up in this. _

_This is big, probably bigger than Sly or Carmelita or anyone would have guessed. And what about that black fox? What's he up to? Is he one of Coal's cronies? Does he represent another organization lurking in the shadows? _

_What if that organization wasn't here to help our heros? And what if some of our 'heros' aren't really that heroic in the first place? All fingers point to Coal Black being the bad guy, but what if he wasn't the true face of evil? (Not that we ever see his face) What if he's just a pawn like Blue or Crimson or Silver or White or Gold were? _

_So many questions, a lot of those questions some of us might not even think of asking. And even I have questions about my own story that I can't answer myself just yet. Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, and hope you look forward to more from IgnorantOne and I. See ya around._

_Tex _


	31. Things to do

_Author's note: Been a long time I know. Hope you haven't forgotten about us because we certainly haven't forgotten about you. It's long overdue I know, but I have been suffering sever writer's block along with some of my real life annoyances, and IgnorantOne's been working his ass off getting an education and whatnot_. _We haven't forgotten about this story, nor our future projects, nor my other story Last True Shinobi. Hey, this writing stuff's hard, man. Anyway, it's long overdue, yeah. But here it is, enjoy. And tell us if you're still reading this story, yeah?_

_Tex_

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* * *

  
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**Chapter 31**

**Things to do**

* * *

"**I**t's a simple thing…to kill a man." Coal Black ran a paw through his hair, slicking the dark locks of hair back over his head as his black leather wing tips ground into the gravel driveway. "You find a man, you get a gun," he explained to a group of men, each clad in dark coats with their arms folded behind their backs as Black withdrew his golden Desert Eagle from his jacket pocket. "You aim the gun at the man," he said, raising the weapon to come level with one of his men's head, the grey furred squirrel swallowed the nervous lump in his throat as his eyes grew worried. "And then you shoot the man."

The loud bang of the Desert Eagle sounded off as the fifty caliber round whizzed right past the squirrel, tearing away a small piece of his ear along with it. The grey animal remained standing still as he winced to the sting of his right ear. "How hard is that? You see someone you don't know…heading toward you, you shoot him. How hard is that?"

The assembled guards remained ridged in their stance, while inside their hearts pounded as they felt about ready to rattle to pieces. Mr. Black had a way with words, a way of explaining things that stuck to one's soul in a way whenever he spoke as the dark clad gunmen seemed transfixed on his melodic, yet seething sinister voice. "Who is that man?" Black quickly turned around and pointed to a light blue reptile, the lizard's yellow eyes growing even larger than they were as he saw Black point at him. "I've never seen him before."

Suddenly, every other gunman quickly stepped away from the lizard, leaving him to stand there alone as he nervously darted his gaze about. "Look…he has a gun." The reptile glanced down to the firearm resting in the holster by his hip. "Maybe I should shoot him."

"Sir, please…"

"Look, I think he's going to reach for his gun."

"Wait," the reptile pleaded as he saw Black raise his golden firearm higher. "Please sir, no, no, no!" The lizard then fell silent after a loud explosion of gunpowder. Black then looked to the others and drew his arms out.

"See how easy that was…and he was armed with a gun no less." He then began turning away, only to glance over his shoulder again. "Who are all these people? I've never seen them before…" and the four remaining guards scattered, diving for whatever cover they could find as Black shot a few more rounds into the air. He sheathed his gun and plucked a foil wrapped cigar off the silver platter Mr. Kane held out for him.

Sliding it out of its sleeve, Black clipped off the end of the cigar and held it out for Mr. Kane to light it for him. "Is there something troubling you, today, sir?"

"I have lost what remains of my league of elite agents…Ivory White has not checked in with his progress report, I have lost my weapons manufacturing plant in England and my work station facility in Siberia and those still loyal to me are pathetic ingrate imbeciles who cannot kill a single female Interpol inspector or raccoon armed with a stick. Other than that…things are quite peachy here." He sighed out a plume of smoke as he nudged the limp reptile's head with his foot, tipping off a few ashes from his cigar that dwindled down into the lizard's open mouth. "These four will be charged with heading the security of this place while I am away. Mr. Kane, you will direct them, tell them how to run everything exactly as you tell them, clear?"

"As crystal, sir," Kane smiled as he watched the dark being walk away back into the vehicle storage area. "Might I suggest the Ferrari this morning sir?" Coal turned back and raised his voice over the distance from him to Kane. "In broad daylight, not very subtle, Mr. Kane. I'll go with a less flashy alternative."

"The Lamborghini then, sir?" The garage door slowly opened upward and a sleek silver flash bolted out from it, screaming like a ghost ripping out of hell as the vehicle sharply turned onto the street. Kane sighed, looking to the four other animals present. "Much less flashy...of course."

* * *

"Wake up," Carmelita said, shaking the sleeping ocelot's shoulder. Dorian grunted, rolling onto his side away from the vixen as he clutched the blanket draped around him tightly. "C'mon, Dorian, this is important. Wake up!" He sucked in a breath as his eyes fluttered open, the slivers of his feline irises shrinking to pencil thin lines on his green-gold eyes.

Shutting them, he raised a paw to his face to shield himself from the sunlight and groaned as he stretched. "What's…going on?" His voice was deeper and fuller as he had just woken up, scratching his back as he blinked a few more times. "Man…I was dreaming it was my mom shaking me awake to get ready for school. Dreams are a trip, huh?" Carmelita sighed, shaking her head.

"You've no idea…" she mumbled.

"What's that?"

"Nothing," she shook her head. "But look at this," she said, offering out the small square of white silk. Dorian pinched the cloth between his finger and thumb and squinted at it, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. His eyes grew a little fuller as he realized what he was holding. "Recognize it?"

"It's…" he trailed off, looking deeper at the symbol etched into the fabric. "The same symbol we saw at the hardware store, the symbol of Coal's organization." He looked up urgently at Carmelita. "What happened? Where did you get this? Are you-?

"I'm fine," she silenced him. She patted him on the chest and squinted toward the cloth. "A man came to me in my dreams," she started. "He had the same color alias as Coal's other assassins, but I was informed that he had been dead for two years. I…he showed me the future, about things that'll happen if Coal wins."

Booker sat up straighter on the sofa and placed a paw on the vixen's shoulder. "Was this man a weasel by chance? An albino weasel?" Carmelita quickly glanced up.

"You know him?"

"We've met once before. I'm actually kinda relieved that it was him and not another one of Coal's men after you." The vixen quirked a brow in puzzlement.

"What do you mean by that?"

"When we last met, he could have killed me, very easily. Or at least have his backup do it for him since he's a ghost. But he didn't, he let me and everyone else live. Tom, Blue, Scarlet, he even said he wouldn't confess Pyrite's failure to Coal."

"Do you trust him?" Booker shook his head, combing his messy hair back over his head.

"I don't really know who to trust in this whole crazy game. Tom won't tell me anything, and Blue and Scarlet could still be working with Coal unknown to us. I…it's just really screwed up. We've been attacked by psychotic doctors, ghosts, snipers, gang members, is this something you deal with all the time out here in Paris?" Carmelita chuckled, patting his cheek.

"You should have been around a few years ago. Back then, I fought hypnotic spiders, genetic mutant freaks, giant mechanical owls, to name a few." The ocelot quirked his brows.

"Man…bet that looks really good on a resume."

"C'mon," the vixen sat up. "We've got to get ready for work."

"I still wanna hear more about your dream last night." He paused as Carmelita threw him his pants, catching it just before the clothing smacked into his face.

"I'll tell you on the way to the station. Put some clothes on, we've got things to do."

* * *

"Yes…I understand that, boss, sorry for checking in later than usual. But you've got the files from Lucius I hope?" The sandy furred jackal leaned against the phone booth and smirked as the voice on the other side of the conversation responded.

"I have..."

"And…?"

"And you came through as usual, now wipe that stupid smirk off your face which I know you have on right now." Tom laughed as he drummed his fingers against the phone box. "Now then, from what I garnered off the information you two have gathered, I can conclude that Coal's plans involve the mechanized Clockwerk, just as those before him have used the metal avian for their operations before it went rogue."

"Isn't Clockwerk gone, as in the permanent manner?"

"I was getting to that," the boss spoke in annoyance. "The original Clockwerk was destroyed, once by Sly Cooper, and again by both Cooper and Inspector Fox, the Interpol officer playing a key factor in the bird's demise, hence why I've been having you keep her alive during the beginning of this campaign. But Coal intends to bring the bird back. We've gotten reports from our spies keeping tabs on some of Coal's posts out across the continent. Seems young master Cooper and his allies have taken a visit to the manufacturing plant in Siberia, the very plant housing the new Clockwerk project.

"Needless to say, the bird has been decommissioned and the factory permanently shut down."

"One less thing scratched off my list. I would think we would have offered Cooper a position by now." Tom's chuckling was cut short.

"Not likely. His psychological profile is best suited to other fields than ours. Plus he's rather tied closely to Inspector Fox, be a shame to split up such a pair. But this is beside the point. What you need to focus on now is finding Coal, apprehend him, or at least discover his true intentions with Clockwerk, and put an immediate stop to them. Are your orders clear, 33?"

"Crystal, sir."

"I suggest keeping Inspector Fox and Sly Cooper safe, just as a precaution. Find Coal, I am giving you permission to use any means necessary in taking him down. But for God's sake, don't turn this into a bloody massacre; I've too many things on my plate for another cover up."

"Take some Advil and kick off your loafers, sir. You've nothing to worry about. I'll call you when the dust settles." Slapping the phone back onto the receiver, he exited the phone booth and took a deep breath of air outside. Tom sniffed, blinking a few times as he fidgeted uneasily on the sidewalk.

"I take it by your demeanor that things are getting rather…edgy, agent 33?" Tom's brows lowered as he scratched his chin in thought.

"I know that voice…"Tom heard this and he turned around, gazing into the dark hollow of the alley. Leaning against the wall just on the edge of sunlight stood a tall thin frame, an oily black fur mixed with white markings along the lower side of his muzzle and down the middle of his neck.

"Have you lost your touch, Tom? I've been standing here for the better part of ten minutes before you knew I was here." Tom scratched his chin, while his other paw cupped under his elbow, until moving it out to point a finger into the alley.

"Ah…now I remember you. Your voice seemed familiar. Memory is quite the hoot, isn't it? It never kicks in when you want it to." Tom lowered his arms as he waited for the shady man to step out into a more discernible light.

An American red fox with well trimmed features and sharp eyes gave a neutral stare to the jackal. Unlike most of his breed, his fur was instead a jet black, having had a full body dye job. "Hello, Tom," he said in a monotone voice. All emotion was drained from his face as he looked to the jackal.

"13, I had this feeling you were skulking around here," Tom said with a grin, pulling the fox in a friendly hug. The fox remained ridged. "What're you doing here?"

"I'm here on assignment, a bit of a personal errand of mine." He plucked the jackal's paws off his shoulders and brushed his shoulders with a flick of his wrist. Tom quirked a brow and pressed his lips together.

"13…you're not here because of…?" The fox nodded.

"Coal is here, why else would you be here as well?" Tom's face relaxed as he blinked slowly, glancing about a moment before facing the fox once more.

"13…I understand you're probably upset about what had happened-

"Tom, you're mistaken. I'm fine; I just have a little business to attend to." The jackal took a slight step back.

"13…things are different. You're no longer part of the organization. It's against regulation for me to even be seen talking to you. What happened back then, eight years ago, no one ever forgot about it, certainly not I. Mason…Forrest, Sophia…it was an accident, I had no intentions of letting anything like that happen to them." The fox listened with machine-like personification, then gave a relaxed shrug.

"And so I've built up eight years of regression. To forget, that will be my tool against Coal, a clear, collective mind. I could not stay with the organization however; the boss would see me as a hindrance, much as you do to me now and have me neutralized."

"13-

"Enough!" He snapped, then quickly regained his composure. "Forgive me Tom, but things only grow worse with time. And now I need to deal with this in order to finally remain suppressive." There was a long pause.

"I have not forgotten what had happened, Tom. And I certainly haven't forgotten who was responsible for my frequent nightmares and painful scars." He gave a smile, a rather awkward one as it gave clue that he had not done so in quite awhile. Another pause, the only sound was the flutter of litter scraping against the ground in the breeze.

"So…what happens now?"

"You tell me what you know about Coal, I go and kill him. Simple as that." The jackal shook his head.

"Not so simple, I'm afraid. You see, I'm on the assignment, not you, 13." The fox's eyes winced, barely noticeable as the corded muscle in his fingers suddenly tightened.

"Tom…give me the information." Tom replied with silence, glancing about for suspicion of onlookers. Seeing no one about, he indicated the alley with a nod of his head.

"Would you prefer to continue this discussion in a more private setting?" The fox glanced quickly to the alley, then to the jackal. He nodded as Tom gestured for him to move first. The fox remained still, leaving Tom to go first. "This isn't my decision, 13. You know the rules well enough to not even question my obligations."

"Spare me," the fox stated calmly. "I don't apply to your rules any longer, Tom. I need your intel, and I need it now." Tom squared his shoulders and ground his foot into the floor. The fox caught the slightest hints of movement as he watched with calculating eyes.

"13…let me-

His statement was cut short as the fox threw his leg out, trying to catch the jackal in the side of the head. Tom brought his forearm up to block the blow. Throwing out a jab, 13 caught it and threw the fist away as he followed up with another kick, spinning on his heel to swing it back at him again. Catching the fox's leg, Tom pulled out his Glock and aimed it behind himself to the fox, 13 grabbing the gun and twisting the jackal's arm behind him. The two men were tangled together as neither would let go.

"We can…come to some sort of agreement, yes?" Tom chuckled between breaths. The fox gave a slight shake of the head.

"Unless you give me what I want, I won't let go, Tom." The jackal sighed as he closed his golden eyes.

"Alright then," and he let go of his Glock, twisting his arm around and swinging it into the fox's neck. He grunted and drew back, but quickly recovered from the blow and caught Tom's arm once more as he picked up his Glock from the floor. Burying an elbow into Tom's sternum, he threw the jackal back and quickly disassembled Tom's firearm. Tossing the bridge piece back to Tom, he twirled the trigger guard in his fingers. "I can't blame you for this, Tom. You're not getting any younger, you still think in the old ways of things. Can't teach an old dog new tricks, but I really need your assistance."

Tom chuckled, standing up as he shook his coat free of dust. "I'd like nothing more than to prove you wrong, friend." He held out his paw to the fox. "But I suppose my head's always been stuck in the old ways of things." 13 looked skeptically at the jackal.

"A good warm up, but I have a better idea than compromising my mission." He reached back and pulled out a small folded up piece of paper from his pocket. "I could really use your help, instead of becoming a hindrance." The fox pondered this for a moment, finding the prospect would be beneficial to him.

"If it kills Coal quicker, then I'm all ears." Tom then passed the small piece of paper into the dark animal's paws.

"The date, time, and location are all written on it. If you want to help us, I suggest attending. With your help, we can make certain to Coal's downfall." The fox unfolded the paper, memorized every little line of graphite scribbled onto the sheet, and then flicked open a lighter, burning the parchment.

"I've never been one for formal invitation Fill me in on what you need me to do...old friend."

* * *

The day seemed to drag on forever, the throbbing in Scarlet's head causing a beautiful sense of personal agony. It was more from emotional turmoil than alcohol intake from the previous night. She watched Madam Francois help a customer as the fleeting sight of the end of Aldric's tail disappeared back into the stock room. She sighed, rubbing her temples a moment before continuing removing canned items from the cardboard box by her knees. Placing them on the shelf in front of her, she moved robotically in her task as her mind ran in a completely different direction, dwelling on other thoughts instead of on her work.

Madam Francois glanced over to the vixen, seeing the trance like stare she gave off, looking a million miles away and she walked up to her, placing a snowy white paw upon the fox's shoulder. "Anything on your mind?" Scarlet barley heard the statement as she quickly looked to the rabbit.

"E-excuse me, madam?"

"You looked like you were under a spell, sweetie. Must have been thinking on something very hard to get a look like that." The vixen shook her head with a soft blush.

"I'm sorry, Madam, I-

"Don't fret about it, dear. Anything you'd like to share before your day's up?"

"Day?" The vixen glanced to the clock nailed to the wall and gasped. "It's mid-afternoon already?!" The lavish elderly rabbit shook her head slightly and patted the vixen's shoulder in reassurance.

"It's been a slow day around here, and you've obviously got something troubling on your mind. I can't have my employees working in such conditions." They both stood up as the rabbit ushered Scarlet toward the door. "Let's just count this as a slow day. Get things resolved, and then come back to work tomorrow, sound good?"

The vixen nodded, Francois patting her. "You're just too adorable for me to see fretting like that."

"Thanks you, Madam Francois, thanks you so much." She turned to the door and stepped out to the sidewalk. Turning back, she thanked the rabbit once and promised her she would work more diligently tomorrow. Pulling in a fresh breath, she started the walk back towards Dorian's estate. The familiar rumble of a car's engine caused her ears to twitch as she turned her head, seeing the sleek blue body of a Cadillac slowly moving up to her side of the curb.

The passenger side window rolled down as Scarlet leaned down to glance inside, Indigo Blue holding the wheel with one paw as his other rested on the armrest. "Hi," he said as he saw her head enter the frame of the window. She pressed her lips together and in a soft voice, spoke

"Hello." He could smell the uneasiness wafting off her as he tried to form words.

"I…thought I could pick you up after work, save you the walk back to Dorian's by yourself." She tightened her grip on her purse, glancing down to the door handle, then back to Blue's face, replaying her promise to Francois that she would resolve what troubled her. Wrapping her fingers around the handle, she pulled and the door popped open for her to climb into the tasteless air of the car's interior. As the car started forward again, Scarlet kept a defensive arms crossed over her chest posture as Indigo occasionally darted his gaze toward her as both his paws were clamped onto the steering wheel. "So, how was work, sweetheart?"

She titled her head towards him and nodded. "It was alright, slow day, nothing much happened." This was going to be harder than she originally thought. Her breathing was uneasy, but she kept it quiet, all the while Indigo catching every subtle hint her body language displayed. Crossed arms, tapping feet, eyes occasionally moving around in an erratic pattern, her fingers drumming against her arm, her lips slightly parted and her brows cocked awkwardly, all these hints showed Blue that she was nervous as all hell.

Being a professional in how the mind works as his original career called for it, seeing all these little signals she sent out was second nature to him. He remained quiet, their ride an uncomfortable one. "I was hoping we could talk," he finally said, his tone, from originally sounding rather pompous as it always did, became a little graver.

"What about," the vixen responded, staring out the window.

"Well…I was…" he grew nervous as his voice wavered, searching for words to grasp onto his twitching lips. "What would you like to talk about, sweetheart?" She drew away from the window, clenching the muscles in her jaw tightly and licked her lips.

"I…I think you've got something on your mind already." His ears flattened as he sighed.

"Scarlet…we've been together for near a decade. Before you…there really wasn't anything else I ever looked forward to. Yes I had money, I got to see the world, meet interesting people, and then kill them." He drew in a deep breath, pausing for a moment. "I remember when I first saw you, so small, so thin and so scared.

"Hearing you came from the streets, your life was a tragic one, much like mine, only harsher. I felt…well I found myself at first doubting your abilities. But when I saw what you were able to accomplish, and all by your little self…I honestly felt blown away…I realized I had fallen head over heels in love with you." Scarlet's heart welled within her chest as she choked down bubbling emotion. "When Black found that we well complimented each other with our traits, I felt as if the universe had just planted a giant kiss right on my cheek, how lucky I felt."

"Saying this now…why didn't you ever tell me this when we were first coupled together?"

"I was afraid," he stated hesitantly. "I was scared that you didn't feel the same way. Do you remember our first job together?" Scarlet lowered her head as she hid a slight smile. Nodding, Blue continued.

"That had to have been the most exhilarating scuffle of my life and the fact that you were right there, next to me just made it the moment, you know?" The vixen placed a paw over her heart and licked her lips, looking to Blue. The malamute, glanced at her a moment, then back to the road. Signaling to turn, he backed into an alley and pulled on the brake. Unfastening his seatbelt, the dog turned around to fully look at Scarlet. Placing a paw on her shoulder, he gave a somber smile.

"I did a lot of thinking last night. I realized that this was the second time I had slept alone and the first time alone not in my own bed. And I figured it out that both times it was my own damn fault." He paused, looking into her with truth fully in his icy irises. "I've been with you forever, and you're the only person I want to be with.

"But if I keep up what I was doing, it would only drive you away to seek out someone better." He paused, licking his lips apprehensible. "I love you, but I don't even know what you like to do, what music you like to listen to, or what your dreams for the future are. And I see now how pathetic of me that is." He reached forward, taking one of her soft paws into his, rubbing his thumb against her knuckles.

"I don't blame you for being irritated with me. I think it's pretty low myself, but I…" he trailed off, trying to find the right words to their unique situation. "I want to get to know you better, not just the physical aspects, but who Scarlet Crimson really is." She looked at him and blinked her eyes, her ears lowering against her head. Indigo felt his throat tighten in nervousness.

"I get that it's stupid of me to just now be asking these things…but if not now, then when?" She reached up and placed a finger over his lips. His eyes became heavily lidded as he felt her finger trail across his lips. She pressed her lips tightly before speaking.

"Indigo...yes, it is a little low of you to only just now be asking me this. And even more so because Tom had to tell you about it." Blue drew his ears down behind his head in shame, Scarlet having heard their conversation from last night. She then combed her fingers through his hair, running her claws against his scalp gently. A soft murr of pleasure growled from deep within Blue's throat as he felt the pleasing touch.

"But, I'm also happy to hear that you'll take the time and effort to actually listen to me." She blinked, staring into him. "Despite it all, I'm still very attracted to you, and I don't want this to end after it lasting for so long. And I understand your point of view, me talking to other men and your suspicion of me sleeping with them." She paused, and then after taking a breath.

"What do you want to know about me?"

* * *

Bentley drummed his fingers against the table as he continued editing footage from his grapple cam and binoc-u-com. The first few clips were from previous jobs, the turtle deleting some to free up space as he switched over to more recent clips. He stopped as he highlighted one particular clip, the small video playing out as the view was from the reptile's binoc-u-com. Panning the lens about the landscape; he slowly zoomed in on a particular spot, a well lit balcony where two lone figures stood. Bentley rested his chin in his palm as he watched the footage.

Zooming in and enhancing the image, he found Sly Cooper and Carmelita Fox standing paw in paw on the balcony. Zooming in further, Cooper and Fox stared out at the starry night sky, until the raccoon whipped his head up to face the binoc-u-com's lens and he gave a devious wink. The binoc-u-com's speaker caught the noise of Bentley's voice as it played through the computer's speakers. _"That sneaky devil," _and Bentley couldn't help but chuckle. He stopped the play back, gathering up the necessary video content from spying on some of Coal's operations, using technical blueprints of some of the warehouses that Sly surprisingly gave to him from out of the blue.

When asked where he got them, the raccoon simply stated, "from Tom." After mapping out the areas of Paris and even the entire country of France, he was able to pinpoint promising parts of the large city to where Coal's main building would be located. Gathering up his cameras and slide projector, he slid his equipment over his shoulder, the contents landing in a large pack behind his wheel chair. The turtle clutched the wheels of his chair and spun them around, making a sharp turn to face the door as he wheeled himself out of his room. He wheeled himself into the small personal elevator he had made in order to navigate the other levels of the house easier, lowering himself underground.

Stopping at the large training area the three animals had created to hone their skills while back in Paris, Bentley saw as Murray pummeled on a punching bag, wrapping his large fists against the sand filled bag. He shuffled his feet like a professional boxer and gave with a few quick jabs, followed by an uppercut, and then swung his body, letting his momentum carry his right fist until his ran into the bag like a swung wreaking ball. The hippo stopped as he saw Bentley come off the elevator and waved to him, giving the bag one last punch before walking away from it. "Well, well," he said, jumping up and down excitedly.

"We've got our job set up, buddy." Murray gave a cheer as he threw a fist into his palm, cracking his knuckles.

"Awesome, time to do some damage!" Bentley glanced around, seeing none of the large stacked crates to represent buildings for Sly to practice climbing and running.

"Say Murray, where's Sly? I thought he was down here with you." Murray scratched his head, reaching under his red mask as he thought.

"Yeah, he's down here. I think he's back in the dark room over there." Murray hooked a thumb behind him to the door on the far end of the obstacle course. The two headed over and peered at the door, leaning into it and hearing not a sound. Murray shrugged to the reptile as Bentley slowly opened the door just a little bit, finding the entire room dark.

The small sliver of light that penetrated through the door gave their eyes the ability to discern some shapes as they found the entire floor covered with pointed stakes, a jumping, twirling form walking across the small points with ease as he did a series of kicks and punches, swiping the air with his cane. Sly flipped through the air, striking a small bag suspended on a rope attached to the ceiling in front of him, while balancing on the small stakes. Swinging again, he jumped back, and then followed up with a strong kick. He stopped, standing on one foot on the point as he raised his knee, doing a series of breathing as he stretched his arms, doing meditative movements with the rhythm of his breathing. His ears twitched as the lights flicked on and he glanced to the door, seeing Bentley and Murray standing in it.

"Sly," Bentley said. "You ready?" Cooper panted deeply as he wiped his brow, stepping off the tips as he grabbed a towel and patted the sweat off his chest and neck.

"You found him?" The raccoon raised his arms as he began drying his armpits The turtle nodded, Murray chuckling as he couldn't contain his excitement, started bouncing on the tips of his feet.

"He's actually pretty close; he's just been able to cover his tracks very well. Let's get our things together and we'll all meet at Dorian's home. I put in a call an asked him to get everyone rounded up." Sly sighed as he relaxed and headed back upstairs.

"Where you going, buddy?" Murray called out to the departing raccoon. Sly turned around as he made it to the top of the stairs and grinned.

"To get something to eat, I'm starving. Then we'll head out."

* * *

Setting up the slide projector, the large group of people pushed and rearranged furniture in order to accommodate everyone as Bentley unfolded the projector screen and set it up on its frame, getting everything in position. "Alright," he said, clearing his throat as everyone found a view of the projector screen. "Uh…bit of a larger group than what I'm used to working with…but we can adapt, right?"

"Hippo, you're in my way of the screen." Indigo stretched his neck as he tried peering over Murray's shoulder. "Move!"

"I can't, and quit shovin'! The Murray doesn't do well in enclosed spaces!" Bentley scratched his head and continued, flipping to the first slide.

"Ahem, well," and before he could continue, a series of chuckles and snickers ensued. The turtle looked to the screen and found the slide to be upside down. "Gah, just a moment." Flipping it back upward, he then continued. "Now then, after careful planning and thanks to the resources everyone has scrounged up, I was able to pinpoint potential areas where Coal's main building would be located.

"Working ahead, I narrowed down his location to be somewhere along this area." Bentley pulled out a collapsible pointer stick as he tapped the end against the screen, causing it to flutter and send a ripple through the image of Downtown Paris. "This is it, everyone. Coal is here; all his projects and influences are located at this one central point. Unfortunately, all his manpower is there as well, which means things could get difficult."

He flipped the next slide, showing an image of the rather normal looking building, flipping through more stills to depict armed guards moving in and out of the building, along with vehicles and non-armed personnel. "What we can gather from these shots here, Coal is stocking up supplies and storing them within this building. He's most likely rearming his men and gathering resources in order to strengthen his defenses at our impending attack. He knows we're coming, but we have a large team of specially trained individuals. Each of you will be assigned objectives for situations that your abilities would best suit."

The turtle continued, pointing to Tom. "Tom, you'll be in charge of entering the base and giving us information of the inside while we attempt the first infiltration. You'll be our inside man, and if you can, try planting an audio bug in Coal's office." The jackal smiled.

"I have just the idea in order to get in. I have a friend of mine currently working on it." Bentley quirked a brow, but nodded.

"Good to hear." He then turned to face Indigo, standing behind Murray trying to get a better view. "Once we have Tom inside, I'll have Sly set up small spy cams at key points inside the complex in order to track guard movements, and hopefully we'll get glimpses of what Coal's up to. And then Indigo," the turtle paused; the dog upon hearing his name gave his full attention. "Your job after Sly has set up our 'eyes' is to subdue any major threats with your fear gas.

Any large guard patrols, areas that are impossible to navigate undetected, certain situations where we need a room pacified quickly. And make sure to keep one extra batch for when taking down Coal." Bentley cleared his throat as he swung the backpack from the back of his chair and unzipped it, reaching in. "We'll need to stay in constant contact with one another when phase one is finished, and I'll be giving out instructions for phase two. So, I ordered everyone a wireless headset communicator."

The reptile began pulling out small devices; each shaped distinctively in order to be securely fastened to every animal's unique ear shape. "Sly, Murray, Penelope, and I already have ours. Get familiar with them and make sure it stays fastened securely to your ears." Everyone came forward, taking their headsets and clipping them to their ears. "It's easy to use; I've set a private frequency for us all to communicate.

"Turn them on, and it'll already be tuned to it." Dorian quirked a brow as he switched his on.

"Testing…testing," he spoke softly, tapping the ear piece with a finger.

"Read you loud and clear, lawman." Blue's easily recognizable voice filled the ocelot's left ear, and then came a familiar British accent.

"These must have set you back quite a bit I'd say, Mr. Bentley." The turtle chuckled to himself.

"Trust me, fellas; money's not even a thought when we're dealing here." He cleared his throat, then issued for the door. "Alright, this is it, everyone. We'll head for our vehicles and park somewhere inconspicuous. We'll meet at the 5th street intersection sign after we all park our cars in separate lots.

"Remember, be suspicious of everyone, Coal's obviously a powerful individual who has a lot of support, even after the damage we've dealt to him." He nodded, gesturing everyone to grab their gear and get to their vehicles. Blue and Scarlet entered Blue's Cadillac. Dorian, Carmelita, and Tom entered Carmelita's rented patrol car, Dorian not wanting to risk having his car totaled in case of a vehicle scuffle or stray gunfire hitting it, while the Cooper gang all piled into their van. Bentley tuned his headset to their frequency.

"Alright, we'll be heading into downtown Paris, everyone scatter once we hit the residential district and park your vehicles. We'll meet up at the intersection. Roll out."


	32. Face Stealer

_Author's Note: Hello all, been quite awhile now hasn't it? I remember saying something about regularly updating this little piece of ours_. _Well IgnorantOne and I have been swamped, I've had sever writers block, and my beta's been through some pretty rough stuff over the past few months. Year's not been too kind to us, so without further ado, here's the latest chapter. I don't know when the next will be, but I think my writer's block is just about over with. I'll be starting on the next chapter ASAP. Hope you're all still reading this. And a special thanks to IgnorantOne for being patient with me and my knob of a brain as of late. Hope all's well on your end, buddy.  
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_Angelos._

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**Chapter 32**

**Face Stealer**

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* * *

  
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**P**aris, the city of lights. The farther they descend however, that image of twinkling lights seem to fade and become unfamiliar. Replaced instead with a place with no lights, no shadow, just black, cold, quiet, constricting. A soft thud echoes down the shaded paths with the smack of a car door shutting as a seething figure emerges from the car, lugging over his shoulder a navy blue bag, about the size of a fully grown body. Crunching against the graveled pavement, a dark fox carrying the body bag over his shoulder slowly strides toward the warehouse enclosed in what seemed like living shadow.

Narrowing his eyes, 13 gave a soft grunt as he was hailed to stop by the guards. "You have business here, sir?" A rhino in suspenders chewed on his cigar a moment as he clutched a sub-machine gun in his meaty fingers. 13 glared up at him from behind his brows and gave a strained smile. Flipping the bag around, he pulled open on the zipper, and displayed was the cold, pale and lifeless face of a sandy furred jackal.

"If you're not the one I need to talk to in order to get my money, get out of my way. I think this is clearance enough to get in, yes?" The rhino raised his brows and looked back to the vulpine, nodding slowly as he stepped aside, waving a dark gray leathery hand to the other guards as they opened the gates.

"Let him through," the brute spoke, a small tinge of caution pricked his spine as the fox stepped silently by him. 13 walked through the dark chambers of the "warehouse", the gate shutting, sealing him off in complete blackness. Lights flashed on, leading him down the corridors until he was opened up to a large office like establishment.

"Coal certainly keeps things looking traditional…" 13 mused as he stepped up to the front desk. A dark colored feline raised his head from the counter and his paper work and gave a faint smile.

"May I help you, sir?" The cat drew up his eyes to the equally dark vulpine. 13 Dropped the bag against the desk and grinned, opening it to reveal the deceased face of Tom to him.

"I would like my payment in cash, please. Is Mr. Black in, I would very much like to see him?" The feline shook his head after glancing at the cold, clammy face.

"I'm afraid Mr. Black is out at the moment, but I can have you escorted to the storage room to…drop of your luggage and have you wait in the lounge until he returns." 13 nodded.

"I'll just drop things off; I prefer to speak with Mr. Black directly once he has time." The feline flattened his ears as the fox was then escorted by black clad gunmen on each side of him as they walked toward the cold storage. Stepping into the chilling chamber, the walls were lined with the steel cabinets that housed the bodies of the deceased. One guard, a black Sheppard pulled open one empty cabinet as he coaxed the fox to lay the subject onto the slat. 13 did as obliged and unzipped the bag.

"You may leave him here in our care. We'll have Mr. Black informed of your contribution and that you'll be compensated for your services."

"I'm afraid I cannot leave just now, when the shows only just starting." The Sheppard gave a cautious squint of his eyes, until the body of Tom quickly sat up and punched the dog in the jaw, while 13 withdrew a knife from his sleeve and slashed the other guard across the throat. The "deceased" Englishman came back and pushed the Sheppard into the wall of metallic drawers, pulling out one as it stretched from the wall to knock into the canine's face. Tom looked from the unconscious guard to the locker he held and noticed it was occupied. "Oh…sorry about that, son."

He pushed the door back in, and then wiped his hands as he looked to the Sheppard, studying his features and build. "Hmm…with a bit of…ah hell to it, I doubt I can make a convincing disguise in such a short time." 13 looked back to him and nodded.

"I'll go open the gates for everyone else. You…um…meld, I suppose." Tom rubbed his hands together.

"Capital idea…" he trailed off as he glanced at the bodies on the floor. "Great, no better place to clean up a mess such as this than a morgue." He looked to the other dog that had the contents of his throat spilling out onto the floor. "Hmm…nice clothes there…"

* * *

"Operation start in three…two…one…go!" Bentley quickly wheeled out from the back of the van along with Murray as they quickly dashed along into the alleyway. "Bentley to Sly, do you read me."

"This is Sly, in position. How're things on your end, Carmelita?"

"Fox here, I'm on my way, Dorian is here as well."

"This Blue and Crimson, we're ready for you."

"Good to hear," Bentley quipped. "Tom and his friend should be getting things into motion. Any minute now we should have the doors opened for us." There was a long pause of silence as everyone focused their eyes from their vantage points to the front gates. They did not open, causing Bentley to stammer a bit.

"Um…yes, any minute now…"

"I knew I should have been the one to plot out the plans," Blue sighed over the headset.

"Just be patient, 13's got a track record for success." Tom came through the voice piece quietly as the shuffling of fabric was heard through the speaker system. Tension rose slightly, until the gate gave a shudder, and then began to lift open. "What did I tell you? Always pulls through."

"Wonderful, Tommy gets a medal, can we continue?" Blue and Crimson both sighed in unison as they bolted from their cover to the gates. As everyone appeared from their vantages, Blue unlatched a canister from his vest and tossed it forward. A cover of thick smoke masked them from surveillance as they dashed forward, into the warehouse.

"Alright, is this everyone?" Bentley looked around to the arranged forces and then continued. "Good. Sly, you're on." The raccoon held up his cane and shouldered his red backpack as he nodded.

"I'll call ya when I'm done setting everything up. Wish me luck."

"Be careful, ringtail," Carmelita cautioned with a stern tone. The raccoon grinned, tilting up the brim of his hat.

"How about a kiss for luck?"

"How about now's not the time?" He sighed in defeat and chuckled as he quickly sprinted down the dark structure. Entering the main area of activity, Sly was rather surprised by the layout of the structure. Outside it was a humble warehouse, old, morose in a way, but he expected some sort of sinister fortress or prison like layout. Instead it was much like an office building.

Cubicles created a maze of walkways on the lower level of the scaffolding he stood atop of, as men and women in suits went about their business. Sly placed a camera on the corner of one of the walls and slid down, activating them. A feed connected to Bentley's binoc-u-com and he began looking through the lens. "Interesting…the layout is almost exactly what you'd expect from an office building. There has to be more to this though."

"Oh there is," Tom's voice came over the communication line. "It goes well underground; I'm in the workshop area right now. So far, the only thing of note is that men keep transporting materials to the factory area, rather large pieces I might add. Must be something big going on. I'll go where I can, but I should keep as low as I can to them, some are starting to give me looks. I'll report more soon."

"Roger that, Tom. Sly, how are things on your end?" Bentley continued looking through more pieces of surveillance that were connected to his binoc-u-com as Sly set them up.

"Almost finished," he spoke quietly. "I've gotten down as far as the workshop entrance. Everything else is too open." The turtle nodded and rounded everyone up as he cut the connection from Sly and addressed the others present.

"Alright, while Tom is our inside man, and Sly placing eyes for us all so there's no surprises in store for us, we should move accordingly to cover as much of the building as we can. Our main target will be Coal, but I suggest we take this place down with him. Until we find him, we're going to fan out and cut his connections from his other bases of operation, see if we can take control of his sums and accounts, and cut him off from all other outside ties so he'll have no other support."

"Wonderful," Indigo rubbed his paws together as he nudged Scarlet with a bump of his hip to hers. "We'll be able to gain access to our accounts again."

"There's only one problem though," the dark voice of 13 spoke out calmly as he lifted a finger to signal attention. "Black isn't on the grounds right now. I was told at the front desk when I was bringing Tom into cold storage." Bentley tapped a finger against his jaw a moment in thought.

"This…will change things a bit, but I've been quite good at adapting on the fly while working with Sly all these years."

"Hey Bentley, remember that time back in Venice when we had to improvise and you had to sing opera against Octavo?" Bentley gave an audible groan and a shake of his head.

"Sly couldn't take longer, could he? Fortunately my voice didn't give out on the high notes when he finally arrived."

"You used to sing opera, Bentley? My I would have loved to see that," Penelope said as she gave a smile and stifled a quick giggle.

" Anyway, we'll go with our initial plan of action. Blue, you're with me, Murray, and Penelope. You'll be crowd control and room sweeper along with Murray who will keep Penelope and I covered while we hack into Coal's terminals for his information and sever any ties he might have to other establishments.

"Carmelita, Dorian, Gold, Scarlet, and 13, since you've all come packing, you can be support for when we might need your help. Until then, your mission will be to make moving around this place easier for all of us."

"I.e. clean house, right?" Scarlet cocked a brow as he rubbed a finger against the handle of a blade that appeared in her paw without anyone noticing. Carmelita gave the other vixen a stern look. Unholstering her shock pistol, she ran a thumb against the badge engraving against its side and gave a soft sigh.

"I don't want this to be a damned blood bath…but I'm not totally against lethal force if it comes down to that."

"Relax, G.I. Jane, I have other ways of rendering men passive."

"I can vouch for this," Blue quipped as he shrugged and checked the barrel of his silenced .45. "Are we all ready to get to work then?" Gold unholstered his revolves and gave each a volley of twirls on his fingers.

"Freedom will taste sweet," the cheetah smirked as his brows remained rigid in a permanent leer.

* * *

Tom kept his ear piece hidden through the small hairs through his ear as he relaxed his shoulders and walked casually. Dressed in the dark coat of the guard's main uniforms, he tried doing his best to stay under the radar and move through the establishment with his newfound liberty within the facility. He kept away from most large groups, keeping his face out of view so as not to be recognized. He quickly moved out of the way of a few workers shouldering supplies cooperatively as they were ushered into the workstation. He gave a quick salute to a boar that gave a questioning quirk of an eyebrow to the jackal as the canine turned and walked the other way.

Rounding another corner, he glanced back to the cycle of workers leaving and entering the entrance to the workshop. Tom, curious above all else, thought it would be invaluable information to gain entry into the workshop. Only workers and higher leveled security personnel were permitted entry however. He gave a disheartened growl low in his throat as he glanced about. Switching from a guard to a worker's uniform was one thing, but he would need an identity, a card of authorization. It was all very complicated.

Coal wasn't lazy either. Each staff member had photo identification as well as a serial number. "Hey," he was hailed as his ears perked up behind him. A sharp jab to his shoulder was issued and Tom turned about. An ashy colored coyote squinted his eyes towards him, and then they suddenly opened wide. "Hold on…who are you?

"I've never seen you before, let's see some ID." Tom quickly responded with a quick jab into the canine's stomach, his knuckles extended out as he struck a sensitive area in the grayscale animal. He gagged, his legs wobbling as Tom spun him around and wrapped his arms about the smaller canine's neck and covered his muzzle with his sandy furred paw.

"Shh…shh…" the jackal whispered, and the coyote became dead weight in his arms. "Well, now I have you to deal with," he sighed in frustration. He then dragged him a bit farther down the hall, only to stop to study the coyote's face. He noticed the animal had similar facial structures as Tom, except for certain layers of gray mixed in with the light beige and brown. "Say…you've got quite a nice face there, ol boy."

* * *

"Where in the hell is Sig? He's meant to take second shift in the factory."

"Right-"ahem"-right here, boss. Sorry, I had me one mean piss to take care of." Quickly jogging up to the factory entrance, a gray and brownish coyote rounded the corner and stood in front of the two animals, a grizzly bear, and a hippo that continuously chomped his jaws on a ball of dribbling tobacco.

"Sigmund, you lazy ass, I don't wanna know what you do on your personal time. Always like you to tell too much information. Alright, get your ashy hide into the workshop, your shift is up." The 'coyote' saluted and waited for the gate to open for him, stepping inside. "Hmm…Sig seem different to you?"

The hippo turned to the bear and gave with a wordless little shake of his head. As "Sigmund" stepped into the workshop, he rubbed his eyes gently. "Bloody hell this cigar ash irritates the eyes quite nicely." Tom quipped in his normal accent, the face stealer clearing his throat and practicing Sigmund's tone a few more times to himself before moving on. He moved about, trying to stay out of sight as he tapped on his earpiece. "I'm inside the workshop."

* * *

Sly brought a finger to his ear as he listened in on Tom and Bentley's conversation. "Excellent work, Tom. Sly, things coming along on your end?"

"Almost….finished!" He placed the last camera on the corner of a hallway's intersection, grabbing a visual of every entrance and a sizable length of two of the four hallways. "Alright, Bentley, what's the next step? "

"Sly, do what you can to help Tom. He's in a precarious position and he'll need support. You can try and distract guards for him by disguising yourself and walking among them, or try to funnel guards after you so Tom can move around easier. Penelope, Murray, Blue and I will be taking care of the power grid to the warehouse. We won't have to worry about their cameras anymore."

"You got it. Tom, you wouldn't mind having some help out there would you?"

"Oh not at all, young man. It's a once in a lifetime chance to be working with _**the**_ Sly Cooper after all."

"On my way," Sly said as he slid to cover behind a wall in one of the cubical laden offices.

"Glad to hear it…oh and…could you make it quick?"

* * *

"Sigmund, you don't sound right, you sick?" Tom licked his lips apprehensively and cleared his throat.

"Um, yeah, yeah. Just getting over some strep throat, had me some sores on my throat the size of avocado seeds, I tell ya. I swear, I might have swallowed a pint of that puss they were squirting out."

"Alright! Sorry I asked, dammit, that's nasty. Just get back to your post." The questioning guard covered his own mouth and pointed with his free hand to direct Tom. The "coyote" looked to where he was beckoned and gave a slight grimace. As he was left alone, he began walking.

"Sly, I could use one of those distractions of yours." A sudden loud shudder was heard as materials began cascading down, causing a loud racket and the guards grew attentive, walking down to investigate what the commotion was.

"Need anything else?" Sly's confident smirk could be heard in his voice over the mic, and Tom could only shake his head.

"Very good, I'll be moving deeper inside. I'll relay what I find in there to you, Bentley."

* * *

"Alright, let's get this underway. Everyone knows their positions?" The group nodded almost in unison as everyone stood together in their assigned groups. "Good, anything happens, we'll radio you. Now," Bentley said as he clapped his hands together. "Let's roll!"

Every group left to their associated tasks. As Bentley, Penelope, Murray, and Indigo went down to the southern end of the warehouse, the turtle using the camera network Sly had set up, they followed the shelled reptile as he wheeled down the halls. Stopping in front of their first doorway, the group stopped as the turtle regarded his camera feed. "Indigo, you're up. There are too many armed guards in there for Murray to take down alone."

The dog nodded as he knelt down, digging into his sport coat and retrieved a small cylinder shaped canister. "Hold your breath, now." He quickly cracked open the door and tossed the grenade inside. Before anyone had time to react, the canister ejected its pin and began coughing out smoke. Blue closed the door and leaned up against it, inspecting his claws before hearing confirmation that his gas worked.

"The gas will dissipate in a few more seconds. Everyone ready?" He turned the knob and they all stepped inside. As they entered, shrieks were heard; gasps of fear and sheer terror greeted them as men sobbed and clawed at the walls, trying to desperately retreat. They feared everyone they saw; even those that were crying along with them were seen as twisted, dark horrors.

For once though, Indigo didn't give his own views, his usual witty banter as he would terrorize his victims was lost. He left on a stoic expression as they passed, as if trying to avoid looking at what the men were reduced to. Some began to go into shock as they then passed out, the room growing quieter as they put distance behind it. Bentley, still leading the troupe, sharply turned, throwing Penelope off guard to push into Bentley, as Blue pushed into her, and Murray pushed into them all and gave a rough shove. "Why'd we stop, little buddy?"

Bentley looked down the hallway, as did the others, while a group of guards casually looked up from their table in their lounge room, the door wide open for them to see out in the hall, holding cards as glasses dotted the table. Everyone remained still, Bentley glancing down at his video feed and sighed. "The camera just had to pan away from the lounge room right when we went down this hallway…" As the guards suddenly jumped up from their seats, Murray roared and flung himself into the room, crashing onto the table and dragging two men along with him. Rendering those two unconscious by slamming them down onto the ground, the hippo shot back up, grabbed a fist thrown at him by lizard, and grabbed the reptiles arm, swinging him like a sledgehammer into the rodent on the other side. "Try and grab your guns, evil doers, The Murray shall always be quicker!"

"Good work, Murray. We should probably take things a little slower from now on. Go lock that door, the terminals should be close." As Murray brushed himself off and closed the door behind him, they advanced with a little more caution. Moving to the end of the hall, Bentley paused, and then pointed to the left.

"This way." They turned as the turtle accompanied Penelope into the main operations room. The walls were lined with screens and terminals. Coal's initial setup was rather staggering, but expected with someone with his influences. "My gawd, it's beautiful," Bentley balked. A ferret suddenly jumped up from his seat at the terminal and gave a surprised squeak.

"What the hell are you-

His sentence was cut off as Blue shot the button to the alarm system before the rodent could reach for it. "Uh uh, not so fast, you little weasel."

"Hey, I find that remark most offensive! I'm a ferret, dammit!" Blue quirked a brow to Murray who just shrugged. Murray came up and grabbed the long necked creature.

"I think what the dog was meaning to say was that you're a weasel in the insulting manner." And then he slammed his forehead into him. "Nighty night," the hippo said, not even feeling pressure in his head from the strike.

"Alright, Blue, Murray, you two stand out and keep us covered while Penelope and I take control of the grid."

"Rodger that," Murray gave a thumbs up as Blue kept his pistol in hand, withdrawing another gas canister from his belt into his other paw. The two stepped outside as Penelope took a seat and Bentley played his laptop onto the consol and plugged a USB cable into an available socket.

"Alright, we'll be taking out all camera systems, and I also want to see if we can locate all of Coal's personal information in here. Bank accounts, purchasing history, passports, anything we can dig up on the guy."

"Got it. I'll take the camera network out from here while you tap into his personal files from his main computer. I'm sure his consol is connected to the main grid so he can access it in his own office. Wow, this interface is amazing, Bill Gates better get his butt in gear. Coal's stuff can run miles around anything I've ever gotten my hands on."

* * *

Sly slid from the wall, landing quietly on his feet above the crowds of staff. His brows quirked as he smirked, watching the drones go about like bees in a hive. "Funny, all their fur is black or has a dark completion. Someone certainly is obsessive with keeping their image."

"Sly, this is Bentley. We're in the network, Coal has a few firewalls up, but we should be able to get through the critical bits of the system in a short while."

"Good work, pal. What's the next step?"

"Keep support for Tom. He's dealt with Coal before; he knows what he's doing. He'll find something valuable soon enough…always has." The raccoon was caught by surprise as Scarlet responded to him.

"My girl, you flatter me too much," Tom's voice came over the headset. "You certainly didn't make it easy for me. If you're ever feeling in the nostalgic mood, I'll show you that scar on my shoulder from one of our meetings." Sly's ears perked as he heard guards investigating his little stunt he pulled for Tom to slip past. He watched from his perch as the ash covered jackal slipped through the gated door and went inside.

Adjusting his blue cap, he clenched his cane between his teeth and leapt for a vent system, catching it and pulling himself up with his arms. Afterprying open the vent with the hook of his cane, he slipped inside and recovered the shaft before a guard was able to look up and notice anything was amiss. "What can you see, Tom?" He pressed his fingers against his ear as he continued crawling through the ventilation.

"It's difficult to tell, a lot of traffic and activity going on. All I know is there's a large project that's taking up most of their staff and attention. It should be easy for you to slip in unnoticed from all this bloody noise. What's your location?"

"In the vent system above you, I can see you through a grate." Tom glanced about casually and gave a slight wave of his paw before letting it rest at his side.

"I see you. I'll be moving in deeper, try and stay close." Tom shoved his paws into the pockets of his coat and moved forward, clomping down the steel steps of the scaffolding as he side stepped out of the direction of a gorilla and a bear shouldering sacks of materials over their shoulders. Through a curtain of sparks and heat, it was almost like a surreal dreamscape. Showering lights and wavering flames and glowing metals, the surrounding noise seemed to enclose him in a cocoon of sound vibrations.

His snapped his fingers and chuckled softly to himself. "That's it; I should have been a welder!" He shook his head and chuckled again, his voice drowned by the commotion surrounding him. Calming himself down by thinking of his past days of catching the eye of his superiors when he was in the Royal Navy, and the long line of handshaking and decision making and erasing his trail and existence to become the face stealer that he was. It helped to center himself, relieve the stress of his position at the moment, and chuckle at the irony and fascinate of where he would be right now if he had decided not to take up his "non-existent" career.

His trail of thought was shattered however as he stood overlooking a depression in the ground, panels of the floor were lowered from the rest of the ground as an incredibly large sharp cornered object lay beneath, people tinkering and plucking away at it with hot tools and plates of strong sleek metal. This section was more secluded, coaxing the jackal to move in to try and get a better vantage point. "Hold on, I think I might have found something here," he spoke into his earpiece. "I'm moving to get to a better position." He began breaking into a steady jog as he rounded the corner, looking for a break in the sealed off section.

"_Bentley, you there?"_ The voice on over the earpiece belonged to Carmelita. She must have been using the public channel for her earpiece as he was able to hear her talking to Bentley. _"We're in the first level, the entrance to the workshop section of the hideout. We need a way to get past the guards, think you can knock out the power for us?"_

As he finished listening in on their conversation, the raccoon entered through a staircase down to a platform that led him down to the level of the project. Sparks flew, steel was welded and bolts were screwed into place as drills and saws roared. Tom stood there, completely stunned. As he watched, Sly crawled from his corner in the vent system, finding it simple to slink about unnoticed as Tom had said before. "What do you see, Tom? I'm heading toward your position."

He brought his paw to his ear as he heard Bentley over the public channel as he addressed everyone._ "Penelope and I are almost done here. Once we have all the data we need, we'll initiate phase 2 of the plan. Sly, Tom, you two are the most free to move about the base, and we've been seeing a lot of traffic in the workshop area. You should probably go investigate to see what they're building."_

The raccoon nodded to Bentley's voice. "Got it, pal. It may take me some time, but I should be able to move about and see what these guys are up to." Glancing back to see the blocked area of the workshop, he instantly figured it was behind that wall and tarps that preoccupied all the engineers' time and supplies. "I think I've found what they're working on, going in to take a closer look."

He ran toward the sealed off area and glanced about. As he was secured with his setting, he leapt and scaled up the sectioned off area, climbing over the walls and sliding down, hitting the ground beneath his feet and turned about. His eyes grew large; he too froze as did Tom who was a few feet below him. The sleek metal plates seemed to smile at him wickedly with their gleam as the razor-sharp points looked ready to rend and tear. What caught his gaze the most was the arresting gleam of the yellow tinted lenses however, and Sly's heart throbbed in his chest, beating against his sternum.

"Oh my God…" the raccoon said along with the jackal.

* * *

"Gentlemen, would you mind helping this klutzy little girl find her way around here?" Scarlet flashed a smile as a pair of armed guards quickly turned around.

"Kill the bitch!" They shouted as they shot up from their chairs and reached for their weapons. Scarlet dropped down to one knee as she tossed a knife. The blade sailed through the air and struck one guard in the eye. As the vixen knelt down, a pair of revolvers fired off from above her as Pyrite Gold shot the other two men in their foreheads.

The act was executed in a matter of seconds as the three men all fell onto their backs motionless. Scarlet stood up and retrieved her knife, wiping it clean off the shirt of one of the fallen men. Gold twirled his guns a moment before he holstered them and stepped into the room, followed by Carmelita, Dorian, and 13. The Interpol Inspector had a slight grimace on her face as she stepped over the bodies. "I thought we agreed not to turn this into a damn slaughter."

Scarlet, already anticipating some form of retort from the Inspector, flattened her ears and gave the other vixen a quick gaze before turning back. "Relax hun. It was just three of them, and they're on shoot on sight orders here. It's either kill or be killed for these guys, no surrendering, shoot till they run out of bullets, then they'll just reload and start shooting more. Trust me, I know Coal's people."

"I think we can all say something similar about that. One of the reasons we're here, huh?" Gold shrugged as he nudged one of the bodies with a booted foot. He squinted his already narrow eyes. "We're meant to clean house, we should go where we can do the best damage."

"I say, why waste time with these goons? We should take down the big guy in charge. Take out the head, and the body will die, right?" Dorian glanced down at the plated side of his firearm before looking back up. "Coal's not here, but even he must not manage this entire place by himself**."**

"He has someone overseeing in his absence maybe?" Scarlet glanced to the ocelot and gave a soft nod.

"Mr. Kane's been his right hand for as long as I've known Coal. He, more than likely has an important role in this facility. If not, we can at least get some juicy info from him about Coal." 13 glanced to the crimson vixen and gave a slight quirk of the brow.

"Smart girl," he said neutrally, with a hint of impress in his voice. Scarlet turned her head to glance over her shoulder and gave the black fox a wink.

"Just because a girl has nice boobs doesn't mean she can't be smart as well. Gentlemen…" She gave a confident smirk and sauntered off. Gold gave an exaggerated stare to her backside as she departed. He looked back to the others as some gave a stare back.

"I'm starting to like her…"

"I'll bet. Let's keep moving." 13 brushed past the cheetah and followed the vixen. Gold shrugged and did the same along with Dorian and Carmelita. The black fox moved ahead, stepping lightly down the hallway and pressed himself up against the wall.

He looked down to a small indoor plant until his ears perked up to the chime of an elevator. A group of staff were beginning to walk into the large box until 13 looked back and gestured for Dorian and Gold to come up next to him. "Follow me," he said quietly as he suddenly charged at the suit wearing animals. The other two followed the vulpine as the rammed into the unaware businessmen's backs, and continued to push, shoving them into the elevator where they smashed against the wall, and all crumpled down into a heap. "Hold the elevator," the agent said as he began dragging the unconscious bodies out of the elevator and shoved them into a broom closet.

He glanced to Carmelita and nodded as he confirmed to her that he won't kill them, the confirmation spoken to her without words. "Now then…going down?" The group moved into the elevator and all stood close together as the doors closed. No one spoke as the soft rhythmic music played over the speaker of the elevator. A few dings, signaling their decent from level to level, the elevator gave a shudder as it stopped, and the doors slid open.

As the doors open to reveal a group of henchmen on the other side, the guardsmen were stunned a moment as they reflexively reached for their weapons. Already expecting there to be others on the other side of the doors, Dorian, Scarlet and Gold, being the ones standing in front, reached for them and pulled them into the elevator, to which the group then subdued them by overpowering them in the cramped space. The group stepped out, lugging their burdens with them as they dropped the bodies into shadowed corners. Their decent from the elevator brought them to the more industrial area of the complex. Scarlet leaned over the corner of the wall as did Carmelita, Crimson shifting her shoulders and moving a little bit away from the other vixen as they both scanned the vicinity.

"The offices must take care of the international business ends of Coal's operations. I wonder exactly how large this place really is." Scarlet glanced about before pulling away, leaning her back against the wall. She inspected her nails as she gave a sideways glance back to Inspector Fox. The Spanish female pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.

"This could get risky, they're armed with automatics, and they outnumber us ten to one." She stood back up and glanced to Scarlet who looked up from her nails to Fox. "A knife won't do much for this situation, you know." Crimson chuckled and shut her eyes.

"Worry about yourself, hun, least you leave Mr. Cooper vulnerable to my advances if you get yourself shot." Carmelita's hackles stood on end, but remained calm as she smoothed out her features.

"You should worry if I survive this ordeal. I can easily cuff and throw your ass into the slammer. You are an international criminal, tied to this very syndicate. This place is just swimming with incriminating evidence." The red vixen narrowed her green eyes and gave a venomous flash, but shrugged it off.

A voice carried over them as they both looked back to 13. "Hmm…not good, too many guns, not enough space or cover." The black fox scratched his chin in thought as he looked back. Dorian glanced to him before brushing past to stand near Carmelita.

"I would think…maybe we can cause a distraction…find a way to draw away their attention and fire from us while me make a break for some cover. Maybe..."

"Wait, Dorian, you've given me an idea." Carmelita made him pause for a moment as she touched a finger to her ear. "Bentley, you there? We're in the first level, the entrance to the workshop section of the hideout. We need a way to get past the guards, think you can knock out the power for us?"

There was a pause on the other end of the earpiece before a sneeze was overheard. "Loud and clear, Carmelita. I just got access to the power grid. Let me scan for your location…there, near the elevators. Now, just a few flipped switches…and…" As he paused, the lights suddenly shut off as quickly as a blown out candle. There was a series of grunts and murmurs from the guards as flashlight beams began to lace out and cut through the shadows.

"Dog damned power grid! Where's Petrov? Is he falling asleep at the desk again?" A growling voice barked out in the shadows as the group quickly darted from their cover.

"I bet he's just looking at porn again, the slob." A chorus of laughs ensued from the guards as the animals darted, sliding behind a stack of girders as the lights flickered back on. Bentley came over the headset.

"Circuit glitch, almost got it." Bentley paused; the sound of key strokes could be heard as the lights flickered out once more.

"It is dark, like the grave," one baritone voice spoke out as he gave a dark chuckle like rolling thunder.

"I'm rather thankful the lights are out, Isaac. You are a very, very ugly man." As darkness enveloped them again, everyone dashed from cover and passed through to the next part of the workshop. This area was in a blackout as well, yet the swinging beams of the flash lights caused Carmelita to hesitate before running to the next spot of cover.

"Play this fast, and quiet, everyone." She whispered to them as she was the first to step out. A case of déjà vu struck her at that moment, remembering when she was in Venice in front of a screen projector as she instructed a group of merc gorillas about Octavio. She remembered keenly the lights would continuously flash on, and then off, and then out of the clear blue, Sly Cooper appeared. For the first time, she found herself in the position Cooper was usually in.

She wasn't very fond of this position. She was used to taking control of the situation, calming things down and keeping cool, but with this situation, she was more vulnerable, not as gung-ho and courageous as she usually was. She wondered if Sly ever felt this acute anxiety whenever she chased after him, shooting high voltage rounds at him. _"Come on now, Carmelita. Running from the police just wouldn't be fun without you chasing me." _

"Cocksure little punk…"

"You say something, Inspector Fox?" Carmelita glanced over her shoulder to 13 and she shook her head.

"Nothing, let's just keep moving." She sighed softly as everyone crouched low. Carmelita threw an arm up to halt the others as a flash light's beam laced out in front of them.

"Could have sworn I heard…eh…nothing there anyhow." The light went away and they continued walking forward. "When the hell's the lights gonna come back on?" The vixen glanced over a package crate before she nodded to the door, signaling with her fingers. As they moved onward, Dorian, bringing up the rear had stepped onto a solid round object, his toe nudging it and causing it to roll along the floor as it gave a metallic clink against his boot.

Everyone jumped forward as three separate trails of light laced out and landed on the spot where they once stood. "Just a pipe..." and the lights turned back as they searched about. "Funny how the dark makes every little noise stand out, eh?" The group snuck under the scaffolding as they all ushered themselves into the next room. Carmelita sighed as she brought a finger to her earpiece.

"Alright, Bentley, we're clear. Thanks for the assist there."

"Not a problem." He paused as he switched to the public channel so that everyone could hear him. "Penelope and I are almost done here. Once we have all the data we need, we'll initiate phase 2 of the plan. Sly, Tom, you two are the most free to move about the base, and we've been seeing a lot of traffic in the workshop area.

You should probably go investigate to see what they're building."

"_Got it, pal. It may take me some time, but I should be able to move about and see what these guys are up to." _There was a pause on the end of the communication as Carmelita's group began walking more leisurely through the shadowed halls. The silence ceased for a moment as Sly's _voice came over the headpiece again. "I think I've found what they're working on, going in to take a closer look."_

"_Oh my God…"_ Sly's voice came over the earpiece, causing everyone's attention to switch to the communication line.

"What is it, Sly?" Carmelita pressed a finger to her ear and spoke. "What do you see?" There was a slight pause; the raccoon's breathing was heard slightly in the background of the workshop noise.

"_Clockwerk...it's Clockwerk, he's back…"_

"_What?!"_ Bentley shrieked over the earpiece. _"But…but back in Siberia! We shut down the entire facility with Clockwerk trapped inside! Anyone who could have finished the project was taken out, and we burned all the blueprints!"_

"_All but one, Bentley. Black's been building this one since the very beginning. Remember when we broke into that gang hideout? Your connections said the blueprints would be stored there, but it was a decoy! Black must have known…he must have slipped in and taken it before we ever arrived!" _

"_But how…how can this all have happened? How would Coal have known we would be going after it and intercepted us?"_

_"Because…because we told him we were going after it…Bentley…our contact...the man from the Thief net site…it was Coal! He lead us to the arms factory in England, that's how his men were so heavily armed and ready for us! And he told us about the workshop in Siberia, his men set up those landmines and ambushed us because they knew we were coming!"_

"_But…I traced him! I had his address, his legal residence, his identification! Coal…he….how?" _

"_I'm sorry to say, Bentley…"_ Penelope's voice cut in on the earpiece. _"But Coal was one step ahead of us from the very beginning, not even you could have known he was pulling all the strings." _

"I would expect something like this from him," Scarlet frowned and crossed her arms. "What's the plan of action now, turtle?" Everyone was silent until Sly's voice came over the earpiece once more.

"_The plan is, we blow this whole place sky high with Clockwerk in it. Then we make sure he's gone, for good. Every scrap piece destroyed, every blueprint and schematic burned, and every whack job with delusions of world domination taken out so that they never try this again! We're wiping that bird from existence." _

* * *

Sly clenched his fist hard, his gloves stretching against his curled fingers as he gritted his teeth in anguish. He stared back down at those yellow orbs that seemed to taunt him with their sinister gleam. "You just can't stay down, can you? No matter what we do…" Tom moved from under the raccoon's perch as he tried to remain as nonchalant as possible, keeping his paws in his pockets as he walked back, taking Sigmund's post on the scaffolding to watch the construction in progress. His paws wrapped around the guardrails of the suspended pathways and he watched with a stern look.

Glancing over, he saw the wavering shadow of Sly Cooper, and tried to ignore it in order to not draw attention by the other guards. Cooper scrambled back up into the vent system as he covered the shaft and crawled through to another area of the workshop. Looking through the slatted grate that covered the vent, he squinted as he looked back on all angles. Pulling out his binoc-u-com, he directed a visual feed to Bentley's. "You getting this, Bentley?"

"_Crystal clear, Sly. Seems Clockwerk is almost fully operational. I've been looking into Coal's private data, and so far, the hate chip hasn't been inserted and uploaded into Clockwerk's brain just yet. Problem is, I can't figure out where the chip is located. Going for that chip will seal the deal that Clockwerk won't be able to come back to life."  
_  
"That's good to know, pal. I can do a little snooping around for the chip. Though with it being still in the data stage, you'll probably find it before I do." Bentley nodded on his side of the conversation. His eyes cut back to one of the screens, the lenses of his glasses glowing with the dim blue lighting of the screen.

"_Sly, security monitors just picked up a car pulling into the HQ garage. A black Lamborghini Gallardo, I believe the model is. Hang on, I'll get a visual."_ He zoomed in on the garage as a group of black clad men poured out toward the car. A tall dark figure climbed out of the driver side door and handed the men his coat on an outstretched arm along with a briefcase.

Zooming in further, the heavily shadowed and grainy face in the visual display stared back up at Bentley through the screen, and then walked away. Bentley, switching to the public channel and addressed everyone. _"I've gotten a visual of Coal Black. He's on the premises now, and I believe he is heading…" _The turtle trailed off as he looked to his own set of monitors for the cameras Sly had installed. _"The east wing, heading to the workshop area. Listen, everyone, do not engage Coal head on." _

"_We wait for everyone to be in position to take him down; he'll most likely be heavily guarded."_

Sly nodded to Bentley's orders. "Alright, pal. Keep an eye on him for us while we search for this chip."

"_You said he had a briefcase with him?"_ Indigo's voice came over the communications this time. _"Most likely there's something in there of worth to Coal. I suggest keeping an eye on where that goes to as well. It could be that wayward chip you're all looking for."_ Bentley nodded as he glanced to Penelope.

The mouse made a flurry of clicks on the keyboard, as another monitor came to life, the mouse using them to follow Coal's escorts, specifically, the one carrying his coat and briefcase. _"We got them both on visuals and we'll be tracking their movements throughout the base,"_ Penelope said as she pressed a finger to her ear. _"We'll tell you when the briefcase stops moving for you to swoop in and steal it, Sly."_

"Thanks guys, I'll make sure to watch for Coal."

_"We're in position too, near the main workshop area."_ Carmelita confirmed over the headset as she glanced about, withdrawing her main, and lethal firearm in favor of her shock pistol. _"When Coal enters the workshop, we'll wait and watch until he's most vulnerable for all of us to take him down." _

"_I'll tell you all now, you're deemed to kill him is necessary…" _Tom spoke after Carmelita.

"_Understood. And Sly…"_

"Yeah, Carmelita?" The vixen gave a pause before responding over the earpiece.

"_Please be careful." _

_

* * *

  
_


	33. Riot

Author's note: Surprised? An update? To this story? Remember, IgnorantOne and I have not forgotten it, it is not "dead" nor will it ever will be. This story will be finished, it's just we have been bogged down by school, and our daily lives. Anyway. We hope you enjoy it, and thanks to my beta for writing the last half of the story for me during my mental block. Always the hero, IgnorantOne. Enjoy.

Angelos D. Wolf.

* * *

Chapter 33

Riot

* * *

**T**he wild commotion drowned out all other thought in the workshop. Sly Cooper burned holes into the lenses of Clockwerk's golden orbs as he gave the metal bird an ugly grimace. He sighed, snorting a frustrated gust of air from his nose as he slid down and hid himself into the shadowed corners. Gathering what he could from Bentley's earpiece chatter, he overheard Coal having arrived and heading for what was likely his office. The suitcase tantalized his nimble thieving fingers as he felt it was time for retribution for this dark man with a pension for mind games. Taking no time, he hoisted himself up and climbed the scaffolding until he was able to worm his way back into the air vents. Unhooking the vent cover and slipping it back on with his cane to remain inconspicuous.

Crawling through the duct, the raccoon sniffed his way about, and touched a finger to his ear. "Bentley, I'm back in the air shafts. Do you know which way Coal is headed?" There was a small pause, the signal somewhat becoming grainy as the transmission fought through multiple layers of interference; Sly was farther underground than the others.

_"I got a bead on him, just a sec. Hmm...it appears he's heading back into the office section of the building. But he's doubling back, handing off the suitcase to one of his men." _

"Hmm, I'll bet that suitcase will have something important in there for Coal." The raccoon mused to himself. While scratching his chin in thought, he spoke back to Bentley. "I'm gonna follow that suitcase. Bentley, keep in contact, I'll need you to help guide me to the case."

_"Gotcha, pal. I'll keep in touch. For now, just keep heading straight until you get to a 'T' intersection. Take the left shaft and keep following it until you pass two more vent covers. They seem to be heading for one of the offices stations on the mid levels." _

"Alrighty, Bentley. I'll keep in touch. Sly out." His cocksure grin returned to his lips as he felt within his element. Sneaking and slinking about unnoticed as he was on the trail of a valuable item from some rich tyrant. Sly Cooper felt in the game again. His heart pumped with renewed vigor, but also renewed anxiety as the back of his mind was constantly plagued by the nagging visage of Clockwerk still being nearly finished and operational.

Looking past his little lamination, the master thief continued down the shaft until he made the aforementioned left turn by Bentley. The route took a slight uphill climb, as the thief scampered up into the higher levels. He noted the first air cover he passed in the back of his mind, and after a long stretch of the metallic tunnel, came up to the second one at last. A small grainy sound was heard from the raccoon's ear piece, and he stopped. _"Hold up, Sly."_

The thief did as Bentley said and waited for a reply. _"You're almost directly above Coal's office. One of his goons is at the door chatting with another co-worker. Give him a minute to leave the case inside and you can crack it open when he goes back to his post." _Cooper waited silently in the vent, and finally heard the door slowly swing ajar.

A black Rottweiler clad in a dark coat walked inside, the case was in both his meaty paws securely. As he placed it onto the polished desk, he took his leave quickly, flicking off the light switch. Cooper waited a few more seconds before prying off the vent cover. He used his cane as a makeshift crowbar, and slid out of the vent, landing in front of the desk. _"You should be able to unlock it from sound alone, Sly. I don't think it'll be booby trapped either."_

"Hmmm, seems pretty standard," he said to himself as he inspected the case. He reached for the case as he leaned his cane against the desk, and pressed an ear to the locks, beginning to flick his finger against the small little gilded numerical switches until he thought he had the winning combination. The first set of numbers was locked into place with a small click. Numbers 5, 6, and 4 made up the first lock as it unlatched. Numbers 2, 3, and 1 made up the other as the second lock flicked open, and Cooper slowly peeled open the case.

Cooper's heart raced, but suddenly sank to the bottom of his stomach as he saw no hate chip. Instead, staring back at him were a few papers packed neatly in the case sleeves, along with something a little heavier. Using his nimble fingers Sly withdrew a laptop from the case. "...Now this looks interesting." The laptop was big, huge compared to Carmelita's, and even Bentley's. The turtles excited nasally tone came over Sly's earpiece.

_"Well I'll be. That's an ASUS laptop model with and intel core i7. That's the highest quality tech you can possibly get these days. It's got ATi mobility radeon HD 5870 graphics, and, and a 756 GB internal hard drive_. _I thought these babies wouldn't be shipped till next year! It must be absolutely exhilarating holding it in your hands!" _

"Whoa, Bentley. Slow down, how powerful is this thing, really?"

_"Well, let me see. If I do my math right; and I always do my math right, this laptop has an incredible storage space and graphics card. Whatever Coal has on this computer, I'm betting it's pretty high end stuff, and A LOT of it. Most likely he'll have 3D models and layouts of things like buildings, cities, vehicles, weapons, technology, or-_

"Schematics," Sly cut in. "If I'm getting what you're saying Bentley...we just hit a mother load of info on Coal."

_"I would assume so, yes. Here, let me help you hack into it. Coal will most likely have everything locked under tight." _Cooper readied the mouse as he began opening up programs. Under Bentley's instructions, the raccoon was able to open up the web browser. _"Ok, Sly. I'm setting up a special little virus for Coal's computer. All you have to do is get it infected. Go into his control panel and make sure all pop-up blockers and firewalls are down. Make sure the system scan is off as well."_

"Alright...there, I'm shutting it all off."

_"Good. Now use the web browser to open up his e-mail. I've got control of the grid so I was able to pull it up. Next, open the e-mail labeled "Download" and the virus will have taken over the computer. I can unlock everything out once I'm inside."_

"Ok, I'm ready. Send me an e-mail buddy." After a quick refresh of the page, Sly noted the incredible speed and smoothness of the laptop as he saw the marked e-mail pop up. Immediately, he downloaded it, despite a few pop ups flashing a warning to refrain from accepting unknown e-mails. There was a small static discharge on the screen, and the interface changed drastically.

The dark neon green cursor was under the control of Bentley now that his virus ceased control of Coal's laptop. _"Alright. I'm inside. I think the first thing we should look up are his text documents. he'll probably have some juicy info in there for us." _Sly watched as the turtle worked his technical magic, opening the windows for text documents. There was an impressive list.

"Let's open up the most recent one, Bentley. Everyone can hear us, right?"

_"That's right, Sly." _Bentley spoke.

_"Hurry now monsieur_ _Turtle. We're waiting on baited breath." _Scarlet's sultry tone came over the earpiece as the turtle continued his work.

_"Here we are,_" Bentley spoke. _"Hmm..interesting. Seems Coal is targeting some of the largest prison's in Paris. Why he would be doing that...wait. I have something here." _There was a slight pause, though it seemed like sounded a little on edge, and everyone froze in place as they breathlessly waited for someone to respond. Carmelita was just about to open her mouth when Tom interjected; the jackal slid off into a remote corner of the facility, and he placed a paw on his mic.

_"What is it, lad? It sounds like you've got us a spot of bad news?"_

_"Well... you could say that. It seems likely that a monkey wrench could very well be thrown into our entire plan if something isn't resolved soon!"_ All of the receivers winced and twitched away from their microphones. Dorian gritted his teeth as he was in the middle of ambushing another guard dog. The canine's ears twitched on, and as soon as the Constable was about to remove his pistol and put the mutt down, agent 13; who was clinging to the ceiling from a pipe next to Booker, dropped from the pipe and quickly silenced the canine; a sickening snap could be heard as the vulpine's arms released their grip on the guard's neck.

Dorian watched in surprise as 13 dragged the body towards a door way, and when he opened it, he tossed the body inside. A short yelp was heard, and the ocelot could clearly hear the black fox cuss in surprise before his suppressed FNP45 Tactical was withdrawn. A quick series of shots from the suppressed .45 caliber pistol put down anyone unfortunate enough to be inside the room. When the black vulpine walked out, he nonchalantly changed magazines before locking the door and shutting it. Booker watched in awe when the former Organization agent lifted up the brim of his hat and squinted at the metal plate beside the door.

"Hrm... Pièce de Pause... ah, 'break room'. My French is getting rusty." With a quick glance back at the door, he hopped up onto a water fountain and leapt back up to the pipe he was previously shimmying across. "Sorry about that fellas. Wrong place, wrong time."

Bentley could be heard as he withdrew another breath, _"You guys don't seem to understand the severity of the situation! If this outbreak continues-!"_

"Whoa, whoa, whoa Bentley. Calm down and take a breather. We need you and everyone else focused here. Now take a deep breath, and tell us what the situation is. We've always been able to work and plan around whatever comes down the pike."

Sly interrupted, everyone mumbled their thanks to him.

_"Listen Sly, a large number of prison riots have just erupted in Paris, and as a matter of fact, in prisons all across France itself! Twenty-eight different penitentiaries, three medium and two maximum security prisons have just gone... bonkers! Nuts! Police units from all over Paris are being called in to quell the outbreaks before the prisons gain control of the gate houses and escape... you do know what this means right?"_

Carmelita inhaled sharply over her earpiece. _"It means that Dorian and I will be called back onto duty within a matter of hours, maybe even minutes!"_

_"Exactly," _Bentley continued_."_ _That cuts us short two irreplaceable members of our team... right at the middle of the operation, and Coal just arrived! It is unavoidable, Interpol Paris is France's second largest big city police force, and is filled with perhaps their most talented officers. While Interpol tries to stay out of local police's affairs, these riots could set France into a state of emergency!"_

"On vacation or not, the Chief will be sure to call us in, of that I am certain." Dorian replied as he shifted himself to get better leverage on the pipe before hoisting himself on top of it. 13 reached out a helping paw to which the ocelot grasped for a breather. "We're his two best officers, and I doubt he's going to let his people stay out of the fray for too long..." There was a sudden ringing noise that was overheard on the communications line, and everyone paused for a moment.

_"Uh... whose phone is that?" _Pyrite quirked a brow as he asked.

Bentley looked around from his computer and opened up the bag with the team's phones in it. He took them away at the start of the mission so that no phone calls would interrupt or otherwise hinder their owners. _"Not ours,"_ Scarlet and Blue were very quick to butt in_. "We turned ours off."_

"Not mine, Bentley." Sly smirked. "I don't bother with them."

_"I use pay phones."_ Tom chuckled, _"That way I choose when to get yelled at by the big boss."_

_"That would be either mine or Carmelita's... we always keep our phones on and handy."_ Dorian murmured. A few more seconds and Bentley found it.

_"Yeah, its Dorian's... the Chief is calling... what should I do?"_

_"What should you do? Well patch him in!"_ Bentley scrunched up his face in disapproval but did as the ocelot asked. Booker cleared his throat and began speaking. _"Uh, hello Chief? Its... what...two a.m.? What is it?"_

_"Booker! Thank goodness you answered; Inspector Fox did not answer her phone, and she usually does."_

_"That is because...yeaaahh..."_ Dorian faked a yawn, and did his best to sound out of it as possible. "_Carmelita is sleeping with me tonight."_

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone._ "Booker, I know that this really is not the best time, but I don't think I need to remind you about getting attached to your-"_

_"Whoa Chief, hold on a second, I meant that she was staying over-"_

_"Constable, I don't really care whether or not you and Ms. Fox are an item, leaves that to the gossips in the break room and the pencil pushers in accounting! Right now I need you and Inspector Fox to get your tails down here to the station immediately! No ifs, ands, or buts, about it! This is a code yellow emergency, and could quickly escalate to a code red if something is not done quickly! I will fill you in on the details when you arrive Until then, get your butts in gear, and tell the Inspector that I would like to have a word with her in private when all of this is over."_ The phone line went dead, and Dorian let out a breath that he didn't realize he had been holding.

While Dorian may have said what he did on accident, Sly frowned and saw it as a calculated move. Make everyone at work believe you're and item, and surely things will come together.

"Wow... this whole prison riot deal sure has the old Chief Interpol quite in a tizzy now doesn't it?" Tom spoke, flattening himself against the wall as best he could. Carmelita's mind didn't register what exactly Dorian had said, but she did understand that the boss wanted her and Dorian at the station immediately.

_"Dorian, we need to leave. Now."_

_"But Carmelita, what about-"_

_"Cooper and the rest can handle it, they've been through ordeals just as tough without us. What we need to do is get out quietly and safely. Once we get everything settled down, then we come back to help, but until then the Chief's orders are our priority." _Sly bit his lip.

"Carmelita... I don't think that would be the best idea... right now Coal is more important-"

_"Can it Cooper. I don't want to hear you talking right now. What good is saving the world if I no longer have my job when I get done saving it?_"

"Carmelita-"

_"Don't argue with me Sly,"_ she whispered loudly _"Interpol is my life, and policing is one of the few things in the world I enjoy to the fullest extent. I would never be able to forgive myself if thousands of criminals who were locked up were now suddenly back on the streets! Especially not after I put nearly a hundred there myself! Booker, grab your gear and meet me and Sly at our extraction point. From there we will make our way to your Mustang and out to the station." _

* * *

Sly bit his lip and narrowed his eyes as Carmelita tugged on his blue sweater. "Come on Ringtail, I can't find my way back through this maze of vents... and I need your help linking up with Dorian, I can't do it alone."

Sly let out a sigh. "Carmelita... the whole team needs your help. I need your help. This is everything we've been fighting for. This one moment in which we can put an end to everything that Coal has been setting up. You can't turn your back on us now, not after all of the hard work and effort we've put into this."

"I know how you feel Sly... but I cannot let fellow officers get killed because I refused to show up. I cannot lose my badge, my whole life to help you on this one. You've always managed to get things done on your own without me, Sly. Since when did the clever, resourceful master thief I've chased my entire career become so dependent on everyone else but himself? Besides, Coal hasn't arrived yet, and it could be another couple of hours before he does... Dorian and I won't be gone forever... we could easily slip away by pursuing a pair of criminals away from Paris..."

_"Cooper..."_ Sly heard Dorian murmur, _"The Chateau' has been nearly taken over. Nearly every criminal you've helped Interpol capture is in that facility... and there are criminals much more dangerous than the comic book villains you've put away during your time. Muggshot, Mz. Ruby, Tony 'Twelve Toes', and even high profile hit men that have taken their work and turned it into an art during their decades of killing. I have no doubt that the Chief will send us there, raccoon, and if the boss' tone could speak for itself, I'm pretty sure it would tell us that the situation is dire. We cannot afford to let these criminals walk free, much less take over any of the important cell blocks."_

Bentley took a deep breath, and began to massage his temples as he spoke over the communication line. _"Listen, Sly... they have a point. We can't function without them... and they can't function without us. We're going to have to give a little in order to get a little... after all; we haven't been t0o flexible with their schedules to begin with. Although, I still don't think that I cannot stress the severity of the consequences should we fail this mission you guys. It's either tag 'em and bag 'em or go home empty handed."_

The turtle then gulped. _"Or in body bags! Yipes! I don't know about you, but I vote for door number one."_

Meanwhile, Dorian flashed his eyes around and then back to 13, who had just managed to snag a passing guard's neck with his legs before snapping it like a twig. "13, do you really have to kill every guard that walks down this hallway?" The black fox jumped down from the pipes once more and lifted the legs of the mongoose and shrugged silently as he drug the deceased animal away.

"I'm just raising our chances of success in the latter parts of our assignment; the less guards there are patrolling, the less guards will be able to come to Coal's aid. Plain and simple; besides, it is not like they bother to use their radios to check in anyways."

Dorian shook his head and finished unscrewing the vent above him, and he crawled into. He was more than a little disconcerted at how Sly was able to sneak through the vents without making a whole lot of noise while the ocelot's every crawling inch made it creak and shudder. "Booker, move your weight to the outside seams and avoid the creases in the metal... I can hear you from our position nearly fifty yards away. In short, your too loud."

The feline frowned but did as he was told, and it significantly cut down on his noise, but after ten minutes of crawling towards Sly and Carmelita via Bentley's directions, he was stopped when a voice flooded through the vent grates. A guard had heard him. "Hey, who the hell are you?" The porkish porcupine stood up from his chair and brandished his weapon as he took careful steps. The ocelot froze as 13 was no longer around to assist him.

Thinking fast, Dorian began to use what improvisational skills he had to get by. "Aye, what do you mean 'who the hell am I'? I'm the man whose going to fix your air conditioning." He spoke fluent French with a near cheesy Italian accent he picked up while in Brooklyn.

"Well if you're going to fix the air conditioning, then why don't you come out of the vent? Show me some ID, and then fix the thermostat that I was sitting right next to?" Dorian froze for a moment, and sighed as he did his best to climb out from the shaft. He saw there was no other guards present.

"Alright, alright. Here's some ID for you." The thick faced animal had little time to anticipate as the constable fired three shots into the quilled mammal's chest. The ocelot cradled him so he wouldn't make too much noise falling to the ground. Someone will surely have heard the gunshots.

He winced as one of his quills pricked the palm of his paw as he grabbed the man's feet and began dragging him. He wasn't above killing out of necessity, but his heart hung a little heavy as he watched himself drag the dead body and stuff it into the closet. He shook his head to clear the fog from his brain and saw a trail of blood leading to the closet. With no time to mop it up, he reached back to the ventilation and climbed up back inside, locking the door to the break room on his way out. Doing his best to make it seem inconspicuous as possible, he then began crawling through the vents toward his destination.

* * *

"Dorian, we heard gunshots. Are you alright?" Carmelita climbed out from the vent shaft along with Sly as the raccoon reached out help the ocelot through.

"A guard heard me in the vent shaft. He was questioning me and I…had no choice." Sly furrowed his brows as he helped the feline from the vent. Dorian dusted off his coat and fixed the lay of his tie. He nodded to Cooper as Fox and he began walking towards the Mustang.

Sly watched in silence for a moment as he stuffed his paws into his gray pants for a moment, pulling the brim of his hat down slightly. Carmelita turned back to see him and walked back up to him for a short moment. "You don't go dying on me, alright? You still have time to serve when I catch you, ringtail."

_"Oh Sly, oh Carmelita. Oh Sly, oh Carmelita." _Indigo's deep voice came over the earpiece for a moment as he imitated the lip smacking sound effects of a make out session. Sly flicked the comlink off without taking his eyes off Carmelita and gave a wane grin.

"That goes double for you. They aren't one to go easy on the triggers, Carmelita. Please be careful. Come back to me safe" They both stood there for a moment in silence, the vixen's cheeks growing warm under her fur. Finally, the vixen took a step back and began to turn around.

"We'll be back. Count on it." Cooper switched his earpiece back on as he watched the officers leave from the garage to the street. He sighed, and reluctantly slid back into the vents. But not before blowing a kiss to her with a small grin.

As Dorian and Carmelita made a bee line for the rendezvous point, they climbed into Dorian's Mustang and screamed toward the station. As they were on their way, they are greeted with dozens of patrol cars struggling to leave the area. All of them jockeyed to get to their posts as quickly as possible. The whole lot was in a panic, and Dorian hopped out of the car and handed Carmelita the keys while he acted like the only sane and thinking officer there and leaped on top of one patrol car and started directing traffic. There were numerous honks and siren flares, but Dorian yelled back at them and lets the Patrol cars out one at a time until the parking lot is empty and the roads were not congested with police vehicles.

The tangle of civilian vehicles trying to flee from the ensuing chaos began to clear as more room was left after the emergency vehicles were gone. Dorian sighed as the last few cars exited the lot and merged into traffic, and with a quick hop he dismounted from the police cruiser and beat on the hood twice. The officers in the vehicle gave him a dirty look but nodded to him before they flicked on their siren stack and punched the throttle, flicking on their lights as they (illegally) road the side-walk to the intersection before merging and heading off to towards their destination. "God, throw an emergency at them and they all turn into a bunch of thoughtless mooks." Carmelita was waiting for him by the door, a small smirk on her face.

The vixen dangled the keys in front of her face before she tossed them into the air, the keys sailing only for a scant second before the ocelot deftly plucked them from their descent. "Fine work Booker. Let's get inside." Dorian nodded and grabbed the door handle and held it open for her, and as she passed, he didn't pass up the chance to wrap his arm around her waist, giving her a quick, tight hug. A few patrol officers that were late in receiving their orders noticed the hug the feline gave to the uptight and staunch fox, and they grinned.

One rabbit even gave the cat a light punch in the shoulder. Luckily Carmelita didn't notice, as she was too busy heading into the Chief's office. Dorian was quick to follow her in and shut the door behind him, coming face to face with the Chief of Interpol France. The old badger removed a totally destroyed cigar from his muzzle upon their arrival. "I never drank hard liquor before, and yet here I am... a leader of a nervous wreck that was once a shining department of Interpol."

He stood up and tossed the dying stub of tobacco into the steel trash can that sat beside his desk and picked up a tumbler glass full of whiskey before taking a sip; the badger hissed as the alcohol seared down his belly. "Chief, I hope that you aren't-" Carmelita spoke, disapproving of her superior's actions; after all, he broke not only three Interpol regulations, but two Parisian fire regulations as well.

"No, Inspector, I'm not drunk. I've been nursing this glass for the past five hours, so you don't have to worry about my judgment being impaired. Now as to the trash can, I made sure to empty it... so no worries of fire breaking out... but as you can see, this whole situation has me harrowed to the bone." He took a deep breath and ran a paw through his head fur, "I have two officer's down at the Parisian medium security detention center, my entire department aside from a few officers has been scrambled to go combat the other riots, and we have reports that numerous prison breaks have been attempted by gangs all over the city. A little less than half of my force has retired within three years, and do you know where that has left me?

Dorian paused to think for a moment as he scratched his chin. He remained serious, but tried lightening up the mood. "A little short staffed, sir?"

"Down river without a paddle, with twenty-seven wet-behind-the-ears rookies who, despite their impeccable service records, have absolutely zero experience in dealing with any situation on this scale! And frankly, I have no experience dealing with anything on a scale like this. What the hell happened to the good old days of simple petty theft?" Moving back from the window, the Chief sat down in his chair and rocked it back and forth. "You two are the best and brightest I have to offer."

"Carmelita, you've been with Interpol for a number of years now, and your experience is invaluable. Booker, in two months you'll have been with us for an entire year, and even within that short amount of time you've become an outstanding partner to miss Fox. You two are my aces in the hole, the unspoken leaders of my boys. They follow your example and they look up to you. I need the both of you to come out of this unscathed and on top, hell, even having you back here in the department has already boosted morale."

"I'm sending you into the Chateau along with Constable Brassemer and Inspector Fujikawa. We have a T.R.T. standing by to get you in and out. You are going into a completely hostile environment and there have been unconfirmed reports that the prisoners might have made it so far as the weapons lockers, so you will be gearing up. Get down to our Equipment locker and suit up... you'll be going into a warzone." The two nodded as Carmelita began heading for the door.

"And Constable," Barkley spoke. "I would like a word with you." Carmelita paused at the door and turned around, in which the Chief reiterated himself quite clearly. "Alone." Carmelita nodded and walked out of the room. Dorian was all alone, and it made him a tad bit uncomfortable.

"Constable... it's no secret that you and Carmelita are in a relationship, correct?" The ocelot leaned his weight onto his left foot and scratched the back of his neck.

"Uh... yes?"

"Well then I don't think I need to remind you of your situation." He stood up and grabbed his tumbler, being sure to take a quick sip as he paced behind his desk. "Fraternization within the department, while not prohibited, is strongly discouraged. Problems with a relationship at home can strain relationships here at work. Especially when the officers in question are held to a very high standard. Everyone one will know what is going on; your problems at home will become the department's problems."

"Chief, I don't think that this is-"

"Not till I'm finished, Constable," Barkley snapped. "Don't think I'm singling you out, because I gave the same speech to the former... Constable Cooper." The Chief made a sour face and took a sip of the whiskey, as if trying to wash a terrible taste out of his mouth. The badger stepped around the desk and paused a few feet from him. "The Chief Inspector of Interpol Spain, her uncle, placed her into my care, and as far as I am concerned, she is family to me."

"I don't want to see her getting into things that she cannot get out of unscathed... but more importantly, I don't want to see her get hurt... again."

"Sir?" Dorian folded his arms as his brow began to furrow with unease. His tail flicked behind his back a bit roughly.

"I made the mistake of letting Cooper into the department. Deep down I knew it was too good to be true... but I allowed it because I thought that she was a full grown woman and could handle it herself."

"Wait..." Dorian's eyes narrowed, "If you were the one who allowed Cooper to get into Interpol... then that means you were the one who barred me from entry into Paris... weren't you?" He withdrew a finger and held it out toward Barkley who, despite being the superior officer present, felt as if he had deserved the disapproving finger to jab at his face; he made no note of it.

"Yes... that was me."

"Sir, this may be out of line... but you don't know how humiliating that was for me." The ocelot's jaw clenched as waves of anger and pain coursed up and down his spine. "Do you know what it is like... being arrested in front of hundreds of people? I was arrested at the airport and then... detained like some international criminal, questioned for hours on why I was way outside of my jurisdiction without official business!" He fumed subtly inside, hot red angle bubbling inside his chest as he paced about to try and even himself out.

"I had all of the papers... all of the paperwork finished, filed, and completed on time. I had everything I needed to be in Paris, to wear my badge and gun..." His fists clenched so hard, his claws almost began to bite into his palms. "Then some rookie walks through the door and notifies me that my contract was declared null and void. That I should just 'return to Stockholm' as if nothing ever happened. I had already sold my house, transported my car and all of my belongings here to Paris ahead of my arrival date, and then I was dismissed just like I was... trash, not even worthy of being given a reason for it!"

He turned to face the badger, standing above the stout brown animal like a praying vulture."I would very much appreciate it that you never ever compare me to Cooper. He's a liar and a thief. He lied to you, to the department, and he lied to Carmelita. Let's not forget that he stole my position here at Interpol. You don't have to lecture me like you did him... I'm... I'm not going to hurt her like he did."

"I take care of her as I would take care of myself. Chief...I forgive you what happened, but please, give me the benefit of the doubt with Carmelita. You gave it to a career criminal, so why can't you give it to a law abiding officer of Interpol?" Barkley ran a paw over his face and looked away.

"Shame on you if you fool me once... shame on me if you fool me twice." He looked back at Dorian and closed his eyes. "I approve... although it's not like you wouldn't stop perusing her even if you didn't have it." The badger stepped forward and grabbed his forearm, "You hold onto her, and never let her go. You are a good man, Booker, and I, as well as the rest of the department, would much rather see her with you than him."

The ocelot nodded and stepped into the hallway, where Carmelita stood next to the doorway. She was staring at him, her arms crossed underneath her breasts. The expression on her face held conflicting emotions, and he turned his head away from her as he stuffed his hands in her pockets. "Of all the people I know, I never would have figured you for eavesdropping."

"Dorian... I never knew that the Chief had you slated to start the same time I brought in Cooper -

"Don't worry about it Carmelita... just... don't. That's ancient history." He began to walk towards the Interpol Station's small arms room, his short trail twitching uncomfortably. "Although, it doesn't stop me from wondering what it would be like if I had gotten here as I was supposed to... do you think the complicated relationship situation we're in now would be... less complicated?" He turned to her and gave a small grin. She looked to him, then began looking forward again as they walked.

"I don't know Dorian... no one really knows." Carmelita matched Dorian's pace and placed an arm on his shoulder; the feline slowing to a halt. "But hey... you're here now... aren't you? I mean, where would I be if you weren't here?"

"You'd be with Cooper," Dorian stated gruffly. "It's pretty simple to me."

"Dorian wait... you can't really mean that. I would be dead if you weren't around to take care of me...if not by one Paris' many gangs, then most likely Silver and his poison..." Carmelita shivered slightly and crossed her arms; her hands gently rubbing the sides of her triceps. To Dorian, it was another chance to gaze at the vixen's sensitive and vulnerable side. "I'm not sure I would have survived it... especially considering it was practically tailor made for me. You saved me Dorian... and for that I doubt I will ever be able to repay you for it."

Dorian smiled and took the opportunity to wrap his arms around her from behind and hold her close. He felt his eyelids droop as he took in the scent of her hair, and he gave her a gentle squeeze. "Come on Carmelita, you did pay me back. I had the most amazing time on our date-"

"A single date?" Carmelita scoffed and turned around, "That isn't enough-"

Dorian quickly silenced her with a soft, lingering kiss. It lasted nearly ten seconds before he broke it, and at the end his muzzle curved up into a little smile. "Well then how about this: four months is too long for a second date. We go out to another nice restaurant, dress up in our best and get decked out to the nines. Enjoy a good meal, some dancing... and then to mix it up a little bit we dress down and catch the latest b-movie action film. How does that sound?"

The woman snorted and shook her head, after the slight shock of the sudden kiss wore off on her. "I still can't figure you out sometimes."

"All you ever have to know about me is that I love you, and that I do my best to say things that I don't mean. Although, if you want to know my opinions, all you ever have to do is ask, and I will tell you how I feel about it, plain and simple." Dorian chuckled to himself as they walked, lifting a finger. "Unless you throw me a ringer, 'Dorian, does this dress make my butt look big'? Of to which I will probably dodge the question all together."

Carmelita smiled and gave the constable a quick peck on his cheek before they continued through the near empty station to the armory; their fingers soon found their way to be interlaced with one another. Upon entering the armory, every manner of firearm and personal protection garments filled their vision. Carmelita let out a soft, almost dreamy sigh. The ocelot looked to his side and the vixen shrugged. "It's something I enjoy."

Dorian lifted a paw and gestured for her to go first. "Be my guest." She continued forward, followed by her partner as they both began looking over ordinance. Fox knelt down as she began unlacing her boots. Booker began to loosen his red tie as he took of his coat.

"Dorian," she said softly, holding her arms as she turned back. "May I have some privacy, please?" The ocelot nodded and turned the other direction away from her.

"Sorry…it's a little small in here. Besides...looking the way you do…it's really a test of my chivalry." He chuckled and could feel something knock against his back as he began unbuttoning his shirt. Looking down, seeing the empty gun holster next to his feet, he knelt down to pick it up, and his eyes lifted to see a heavenly sight. He held in his breath, and forced himself to blink a few times as he stood up straight.

Dorian's face grew warm from drinking in the sight of Carmelita's shapely rump clad only in her undergarments, and he found himself starting to lose grasp of the situation. Shaking his head, Booker continued undressing as he reached for the nearest vest, and he began slipping in sheets of reinforced Kevlar plating into the vest. Reaching down, he pulled on the Kevlar pants, adjusting the cup against his crotch. It took only a moment and a sharp tug on his knot to secure his boot lace before he tucked it in. Dorian lowered his leg from the bench and looked over at Carmelita, who had stripped down to her underwear, giving the Constable an impressive view of her half-naked body.

He picked up his MP5 and sat down as he began to screw on the suppressor; he was quick to do the same on his USP.45. "You better not be staring, Dorian." Carmelita's voice carried over his shoulder as his ears raised to catch it.

"Who, me?" Dorian chuckled as he donned his plate carrier, the thick steel inserts weighing at least thirty pounds. "What would ever make you say that?"

"I know you're watching me, Booker." Her tone was stern, yet teasing, and she was about to continue when she felt two arms circle around her waist and a chin rest against the crook of her neck. "Dorian, we're in the locker room and I'm half naked." The ocelot chuckled and he planted a soft kiss on her neck.

"What is your point?" He murmured, his vantage point giving him a breath taking view of her cleavage. She was about to retort when he released her and began to check her gear while she continued dressing up, the flat coyote brown of the T.R.T. uniform and Kevlar armor not doing much to cover up her figure.

"We've been issued riot Pee-Fives, and you-es-pees for personal protection. Got a couple flash bangs and about two dozen flexi-cuffs a piece," Dorian murmured. "This... is some pretty heavy shit we're getting ourselves into Carmelita."

"I know Dorian... but we have to get this done. If Coal really orchestrated this whole prison riot, then we have to put our duties first and get it neutralized. We can't afford to let Coal go... but we can't let hundreds of officers or civilians get hurt because dangerous criminals escaped into Paris."

"I know that Carm, it is just infuriating... I mean, he was right there…right in our grasp-"

"Let it go. Sly and the rest can handle him. The sooner we get out of here the sooner we can get our duty done... then we can get back to the rest of the group." Dorian looked back as he felt a paw on his shoulder. He looked back to see her fully suited up.

"Ready to roll?" Dorian lifted up his MP5 and pulled back the action as it made a metallic click, loading the cartridge into the chamber.

"Oh yeah." They made a bee line for his Mustang, Dorian sinking into the driver seat and grabbing the clutch. With the clutch depressed, Dorian shifted into first; his eyes darting over to Carmelita as he shifted nervously in his seat. There were words he had wanted to say, and while most of them he had uttered many times before, there were others still buried deep within his chest. This situation was extremely dangerous, and neither of them had any experience in dealing with prison riots, especially not one concerning the Chateau du Hoc Maximum security prison; a prison which housed some of the most dangerous career criminals and murderers.

He took his hand off the shift knob and placed it on top of the vixen's if only for a moment, and he watched her visibly relax; he even spotted some semblance of a smile as she used her other hand to flick on the mustang's built in police lights and siren. "Punch it, Booker."


	34. Walls

Author's note: _Another year, another attempt. Life is kicking my ass, but I feel more ready than ever to power through this and get it done, not just for you readers, who have been supporting my beta and I for…well ever, not for the fame or the glory, not for the reviews, but for me. I want to do this for myself, I came here to make an awesome story to a game series I adore to this day, and my beta and I are gonna do it. Always, thanks for the support and feedback, my noble readers._

_IgnorantOne, if you are out there, I attempted to get in contact with you, but you haven't responded to me in weeks, so I will just start working on more chapters and proofreading and editing them myself. I hope you are well my friend, and I hope you understand.  
_

_NOW, without being overly serious, here you go._

_Angelos D. Wolf_

* * *

**Chapter 34**

**Walls**

* * *

** T**he streets were filled with the sounds of madness. Most of the citizens had evacuated this section of the area, casting an eerie solitary feeling from the unoccupied buildings. As the cherry red Mustang zoomed down the road towards its destination, the two heavily armed officers thought quietly to themselves during the ride. Never in their years have they seen a city as large as Paris herself…and yet there wasn't a sound except distant gunfire thundering and popping over the buildings to the east. Carmelita craned her neck, looking out the passenger window.

She shook her head. "This…" she trailed off as she found nothing able to express her forlorn demeanor. Dorian could only nod in agreement. The city had been turned into a battlefield as officers in black riot gear began to restrain escaping convicts in the streets. Their bright jumpsuits threw a stark contrast against the depressing grey that seemed to loom over the city now as the misty dawn was approaching.

"There it is, and I see Brassemer and Fujikawa by the entrance." The taller of the two, Brassemer was an American agent, transferred to Paris shortly before all this mess began. Carmelita had seen him among the officers in the building from time to time, but was never fully acquainted with him. He turned from the doorway he and Fujikawa were pointing their weapons down and waved a paw to them. As Carmelita and Dorian climbed out of the car, the black and white border collie jogged down to them as he patted Fujikawa on the shoulder.

"Glad you two could make it. I'm Constable Brassemer. Up there…" he said, waving a paw toward the shorter tanuki who fired down the entrance hall with a few bursts of fire before replacing his spent magazine; empty 9mm shell casings that once housed rubber bullets littered the area around him. "…is inspector Hideki Fujikawa. We've been holding anyone at bay from exiting the building that isn't wearing a badge right now. We supported the other team of officers that entered the building."

All three began walking towards the building as Fujikawa gave a polite bow of his head. "Me and Hideki here haven't heard anything back from them in about…how many hours?"

"Two hours," the raccoon dog spoke, his speech thick with a Japanese accent.

"Yep, two hours now." The collie rolled up his sleeve to glance at his watch. A series of bullets smacked against the walls of the hallway as everyone flinched, and Hideki took cover by the doorframe. Brassemer leaned out his arms as he began spraying bullets with a blind fire maneuver to quell their enemies. "We're under fire and we can't enter the damn place without those psychos gunning us down.

"Shit…" he cursed under his breath. "They must have taken every bullet they can find. Who knows how long they can hold out, we're running out of mags."

"James," Dorian spoke to the canine. "We'll head around while you and Hideki keep them suppressed. We got a few flash bangs we can lob in there to stun them, but once you hear it go off, you'll have to rush in there and help us take them down. How many of them are there?" Brassemer looked to his partner who turned to him, then back toward the entrance.

"Let's do a head count, yeah?" The collie slowly leaned his head out until his eyes cleared the doorway. A quick glance and he pulled his head back in an instant. "Three on the left, four on the right."

"Your right or mine?" Hideki shook his head.

"Um…crap. Yours, no wait! Mine! Mine!" Booker nodded as he turned back to Carmelita. She walked towards the other officers after being silent for most of the conversation.

"Just relax, Constable. My partner and I will give you an opening. But you'll have to take it as soon as we give it to you. When the bang goes off, you'll both need to be there to help us take them down." Brassemer nodded and held his suppressed MP5 against his chest.

"We fire at them to keep them distracted." Hideki spoke, only a slight strain on the words as he tried to pronounce it correctly. Carmelita nodded to the raccoon dog and walked around to the other side of the building with Booker. The two exchanged glances as they listened for where the convicts would most likely be barricaded inside. Coming up to the side near the entrance, Carmelita stepped up the wall and grabbed a hold of the steel bars on the window.

With the firefight escalating down the hall, no one was able to hear Inspector Fox and Constable Booker dislodging the steel bars from the window with a controlled blast using a number of small strands of detonation cord. Pulling out a flash bang, the cylindrical object filled the vixen's paw as she pressed her back against the wall along with Booker. The two drew in a breath, and Carmelita threw the object over her head and into the building. A thick booming noise followed by a sudden flash of white, and they quickly scaled the wall and climbed in through the window. Brassemer and Fujikawa heard the blast and instantly ran down the hallway, tackling two of the convicts to the ground.

Slamming their heads against the concrete floor and rendering two of the shooters unconscious, the duo quickly sprang up and knocked the others to the floor as Fox and Booker subdued two more and cuffed them all together. "Down on the floor now! Now!" Brassemer barked curses and commands to those still disorientated to not know what was going on while Fujikawa had to plant a boot onto a man's chest to keep him on the floor.

"Hands out where I can see them! Face down on the floor, now!" One prisoner began to raise himself off the floor, but was quickly grounded from a solid stock knocking against his back, causing him to flatten himself and twitch slightly in pain. The team began to link each prisoner's wrists together as they were strung up against the guard rails and secured to it. Brassemer let out the air he was holding in his lungs and gave a sort of chuckle.

"I really hope we don't run out of these little zip-ties soon, otherwise there won't be another way to keep all these guys in check."

"This is a prison," Booker said. "There should be spare cuffs around here somewhere incase we'll need them." He looked from the group on unconscious gunmen towards the other officers, towards Carmelita. The Spanish vixen stood up as she looked down the dark recesses of the prison. She turned to the other two officers.

"Where did the rest of your unit run off to?" Brassemer looked to the left along with Fujikawa. The tanuki remained silent as James spoke for him.

"There were four others. They all went down the left wing, into the solitary confinement. The infirmary is down that way too, in case you might need anything from there." Carmelita looked at Brassemer for a moment before turning to the left.

"Solitary will be a big hub for activity I'm sure…if the layout is anything like the other penitentiaries, we should cut through the shower halls and into the library after a while. We'll pass the majority of the cell blocks and skip the kitchen and cafeteria which I'm sure where most of the convicts will be massing at. "

"Take the place down one level at a time. It'll be tough, but we might find your friends along the way." Brassemer raised his brows in approval as he glanced to Hideki. The oriental raccoon dog made no rebuttal in affirmation as they all moved behind one another in formation down the hallway.

* * *

The showers smelled musty and damp. All the lights were shot out or malfunctioned due to the damage to the building during the jailbreak. One faucet had ruptured and was spraying water all over the tiled floor, swirling around the drains next to each showerhead. The officers all donned night vision goggles, keeping close together as Brassemer slowly shuffled backwards, covering the rear. With illumination sparse even with the flickering of the damaged lights, Brassemer took the liberty of flicking on his IR head lamp; as the infra-red light shone through the wide-dispersion lenses, the area was immediately bathed in a soft radiant light. As the group moved through the maze like shower hall, the back of his foot nudged something that was once stuck to the floor of the shower and he chuckled.

"Hey Hideki…" he spoke softly. The tanuki turned around as the collie held up a rectangular bubbling bar. "Don't drop the soap." He chuckled again to his own joke while Fujikawa let out a sigh and shook his head. Brassemer threw the soup over his shoulder and they all continued together through the shower hall.

A fluorescent bulb near the group flickered slightly, giving awkward flashes of bright light against the lenses of the night vision goggles; the optics couldn't compensate appropriately, and the vibrant spasms of light were very disorienting. Carmelita, who was currently the group's point man, was quick to shed the goggles in an attempt to preserve her own keen natural night vision. As her eyes adjusted to the loss of the green filters, other colors quickly began to return, and within a few moments the vixen noticed a few splotches of color against the white tiled floor. It didn't have the same look or consistency as the water that sprayed the area behind them, and under the flickering light, she could see more of the discoloration. The deep red quickly sent an alarm in her head as instinct kicked in.

Leveling her gun, she raised a hand for everyone else to stop moving. She made another gesture and they began to move slowly, crouched low as Carmelita leaned around the corner, one hand on the trigger, another resting on the floor to balance her weight. Aiming down the sights, she quickly noticed a shadowed blot of darkness on the floor where the smeared puddles of blood were ,and leveled her gun with both hands. The light flickered again, and the quick flash revealed tiny details of the deceased man. His body eviscerated and clothing torn in many place.

Reaching closer towards the corpse, she raised its head by lifting it with the barrel of her gun. She winced, seeing the face as nothing more than exposed muscle and blood. He was completely unidentifiable. The vixen quickly shot up, sweeping the barrel of her MP5 around the immediate area. The darkness that flickered in and out threw strange twisted shadows against the wall.

The blood caked walls. Every nerve in her body was grasped and pulled tightly, her body alert and rigid. Dorian noticed this and turned back to Fujikawa and Brassemer. Giving them wordless gestures, the two other officers crouched low and held their guns sturdy against their shoulders. "The blood's still wet.

"This couldn't have happened more than an hour ago." The corpse's clothing identified him as an inmate, possibly one that had received the blunt wrath of the other escapees in their blind fury towards freedom. There was a sudden crash, as something metallic clanked and rolled across the floor. Each Interpol agent whipped their sights towards the next hallway leading out of the showers. The steel barred doors were thrown open with abandon as everything was unlocked, and fully exposed.

A shuffling of movement could be heard as the clanking noise died away. Dorian perked an ear, thinking he caught the fleeting lullaby of a high pitched laugh. Carmelita turned towards the others behind her. "Move in quiet, eyes open on every angle. Take it slow."

Slowly one by one the four officers moved into the next hallway in a line, Brassemer bringing in the rear, facing the opposite direction as he walked steadily backwards. One booted foot behind the other as he turned in a slow half circle, scanning ever last nook of darkness. Dust filled beams of light laced through the windows, yet with all the lights burnt out, the light of the morning sun simply made it glaringly difficult to see every detail at once. Weird shadows painted the halls as they seemed to move, contorting into wicked shapes of cackling faces and malicious forms. Heading down the once secured hallway, lined with barred chambers thrown open and abandoned, voices seemed to stretch out from the shadowed forms along the walls.

Brassemer kept his eyes open, perking his ears up to standing points as they scanned back and forth like shaggy satellite dishes. Another crashing noise, and the troupe thought they heard yelling, cursing, and then silence. Fujikawa looked over his shoulder back to Brassemer who had his back turned, then back around. There was a flash of movement, low to the ground as it seemed to scurry to another shadowed corner. Flashlights came on, lacing through the dark, but there was nothing there.

"Did anyone else see that?" Dorian leveled his gun as a prickling anxiety nipped the back of his neck. Another sound of scraping against the floor and the group quickly turned around. Brassemer kept a shaky grip on his MP5 and squinted into one of the open cells. Holding up the flashlight, he covered his mouth piece with a hand and grunted.

His eyes grew wide as the piles of dark mass gave definition in the light. Some hung from the walls while others were bent and twisted into the bars of the door. They all dripped with fresh blood. "We need to leave, NOW!" Everyone turned to Brassemer as something out of the corner of Carmelita's eye moved.

The corner of the shadow quivered as she raised her flashlight slowly. The gnarled, gangly thing quickly looked directly at the vixen as the light fell upon his back until he gave a gargling yell and ran away, bent low and walking almost on all fours. She opened fire, a few quick bursts, but it was too dark to see if she hit anything. A dank hiss pierced the dark as everyone stepped back, pressing against one another as they lifted their guns to bare. "We're not alone in here," she whispered.

As if to confirm, another series of yells and conversation could be heard from far away, possibly in another room. The lights laced every which way, until one passed over two gleaming orbs for a split second. Brassemer swore he saw eyes looking at him, but as he turned he flashlight back to the original spot, the eyes were gone. "Ah, dammit…" he sighed. "There's more than one."

There was a series of scrapes across the floor of sharp clawed feet, slapping against the cold hard floor. Something jumped, and as Fujikawa turned toward the noise, he was flown back from a double kick to the chest. A mad cackling was heard as the assailant quickly retreated back to the wicked shadows. Fujikawa grunted as he had the wind knocked out of him while Brassemer helped the tanuki up. Fox whipped her firearm about, shining the light about that was attached to the grip, but saw nothing.

She noticed particles of a white dust floating around the air as her flashlight shone brightly. She squinted her eyes in thought, until it donned on her. "Desoxyn." Booker looked the vixen with puzzlement.

"What's going on?" Carmelita kept her sights leveled as she surveyed their surroundings.

"Everyone keep your masks on. Dammit," she cursed. "They must have broken into the hospital section of the prison. There's ground particles of Desoxyn in the air." Brassemer shrugged as he had Fujikawa lean against one another as they covered each other's back.

" Desoxyn, wait, that's meth!"

"Methamphetamines, yeah. The cons must have broken into the hospitals, ground the tablets, taken the powders, needles, whatever they can find. They're huffing the stuff. That must be why that man I shot didn't stop. He probably didn't even feel the bullet hit him."

"So, these guys," Booker shifted his eyes about nervously. "They're all hopped up, probably watching us right now."

"Watching us?" Fujikawa cut in. "With all they injected…they could probably hear our hearts beating in our chests."

" Great way for setting up the tension, partner." Brassemer coughed. "I cracked a few meth heads back in the states. Trying to tackle a guy who's on that crap is almost impossible. Took three of us to hold him down. He just wouldn't stop running. His body refused to make him stop." The officers remained in a tight circle in case of another ambush.

The sounds of bare feet slapping against the floor shot everyone's nerves to the ceiling as they tried to locate the sound. Another set was heard in the opposite direction. Carmelita broke formation and, after hearing a pause, threw the stock of her MP5 out to catch one of the addicts in the chest. It didn't even cause him to let out a sigh of pain or any recognition that he had been hit. He hopped back up onto his feet and, with erratic twitching, charged after Carmelita. The crazed inmate jumped again, and threw his hands towards Carmelita's neck.

A few quick pulls of the trigger and four holes burst onto the figure in the dark. He gasped slightly, and only after another shot did he finally fall onto his back. Carmelita bit her lip and cursed. She hated having to resort to lethal force, but they had no other choice. "Damn…" Fox sighed, until her back stiffened as he heard another sound.

A wild cackling was heard as another emaciated form dropped down and wrapped their limbs around the sheep dog's torso and neck. "Get em'! Get em' off me!" He slammed his back against the wall to try and dislodge his passenger as the addict attempted to bite through the mesh of kevlar around the American canine's neck. Brassemer withdrew his knife from the sheath on his shoulder and scratched at the hands around his neck.

He threw the man off his back and onto the floor as he attempted to restrain him with the zip ties. Failing to restrain him, the addict, which was identified as a pink eyed mouse, threw his foot up and kicked Brassemer in the nose. The collie yelped and clutched his snout as he was thrown to the floor. Pulling out his side arm as the mouse quickly threw himself on top of the dog, Brassemer pressed the barrel into the rodent's ear and fired. There was an eerie quiet as the smell of gunpowder wafted through everyone's nostrils.

Brassemer threw the body that was limp against him and lied on the floor to catch his breath. Fujikawa came up to him. "You alright James? James?" The collie let out a sigh and threw his hand up for Hideki to catch it.

"I want to be a pencil pusher again…" He sighed and regained his feet before looking back at the mouse. He was glad it was dark, he didn't want to see the damage he did to the rodent's face too clearly. "Let's get to the library, please?"

* * *

The hall simply wouldn't end. It was a painful crawl at a snail's pace until they reached the library. Carmelita slowly opened the door the deserted learning hub. Most of it was well intact save for a few books that were dislodged from the blast during the jail break. "Solitary will be down a few more blocks in the very back of the structure. Thankfully it's not underground."

The group leveled their guns and continued on. Fox and Booker in the front, while Brassemer and Fujikawa covered the rear. A shuffling of movement was heard as everyone stopped. An overweight bobcat with a cigarette in his mouth was flipping through a book absentmindedly until he looked up to see the four officers staring at him. He closed the book and froze a moment as the two animals in front held their guns to him.

"Don't…even blink." Carmelita tightened the grip on her MP5 as she slowly moved toward the convict in his bright florescent suit. He quickly then made for the door as he threw the book at Fox. Fujikawa thought quickly as he withdrew his club and hurled it at the man's knees. Striking near his ankles, the retreating feline gasped in pain as he fell to the floor.

"Nice shot," Booker said to the tanuki as the four surrounded the bobcat. "The lady said don't move." Carmelita lifted the thick man by his collar and threw him against the wall.

"Pretty light there, you don't hit the gym much do you?" The feline squinted his eyes and growled. "What happened when the break out started?" The feline darted his golden eyes to the side a moment. Coming back from the table at the left of him, he looked back to Carmelita, his gaze probing for what her intensions would be. "I'm not repeating myself."

She was met with a tight lipped silence. _Perhaps not too tight. _She thought to herself. She picked up one of the books off the floor, a thick leather bound tome that weighed a fair bit of kilos. "If you don't answer my question, this book is what I'm going to use to make sure you won't be able to piss straight for the rest of your-

"Miss Fox," Fujikawa interrupted. "If…I may propose something a little less extreme." He struggled slightly with his thick accent. The vixen was somewhat intrigued as she looked back to the tanuki.

"What did you have in mind, Fujikawa?" The Japanese man took a step forward and gently took the bobcat's forearm in his hands. Rolling up the feline's soiled sleeve, he inspected the lay of his veins under his stripped fur.

"Since it's tradition, I trained under many instructors in a few forms of Japanese martial arts. Jujitsu being the one you all probably know most about." He shook his head from rambling as he continued inspecting the convict's arm. "To get to the point. In my classes I studied techniques for inflicting a...massive amount of pain by striking pressure points in specific areas of the body.

"If our friend here will not answer our questions…I might have to use those techniques." Carmelita shrugged and looked at the bobcat, who's eyes grew a little more tense as the skin under the fur of his arm grew taught from growing anxiety.

"I would spill the beans friend," Brassemer spoke behind the crowd. "I saw Fuji there snap a man's arm like a twig once n' he was a bear." The feline remained quiet. Fujikawa sighed as he held the man's arm up, then brought down two fingers near the inside of his elbow. The solid jab with the tips of his fingers, and the bobcat let out a yelp as he felt the nerve in his arm swell up and close off, creating a painful pressure on his entire forearm. Grasping his arm, the feline growled in pain as he felt his veins pulsating under his fur.

"Well," Fujikawa spoke. "Ready to talk?" The bobcat gasped from the pain and looked up towards the short tanuki.

"Oui" he spoke in native French. "The riot first started a few hours ago. The walls…collapsed around us. I was in the cafeteria when it hit." He gasped a moment from the pain as he tried standing up. "There was an explosion, a few controlled ones. Whoever sprung us knew the prison, each explosion took out a guard station and gave us plenty of holes to crawl through the walls.

"When we went outside, we saw much of the city already over run with other inmates. Some of us left, maybe wanted to go out and kill cops. Bunch of morons, all they'll do is get shot."

"Who set off the explosions?" Dorian stepped forward, leaning towards him, intimidating him.

"I didn't see…" he shook his head. "They were wearing black and they were fast, professional. But…they were concentrated more on solitary confinement than anywhere else in the prison…if that'll get you pigs off my back." Carmelita quirked a brow as she nodded towards the bobcat.

"Thanks for the help. Brassemer, incapacitate him."

"Sure thing." The dog walked up to the feline and threw his shoulder back, then delivered a powerful punch, knocking the cat back against the wall until he slid down onto the floor. The collie knelt down and bound the man's wrists together with the plastic zip-ties. Doubling up the ties against the spotted feline's wrists, Brassemer wiggled his fingers and clenched his fist a few times before standing up. "So, take it we're headed to solitary?"

Carmelita Fox nodded. "Afraid so." Brassemer let out a quiet sigh as he blinked hard, regretting getting out of his bed this morning to himself. Fujikawa gave a sharp, subtle nod in affirmation. "Alright, everyone.

"Solitary will be heading down deeper into the belly of this beast. We'll need to keep our eyes open for this. We've no clue what is down there waiting for us."

"I got a few ideas what might…" Brassemer muttered to himself. "No more heroine junkies, no…more heroine junkies." His rambling was cut off from a nudge by Hideki's elbow to the dog's side. The Japanese man tilted his head towards Carmelita and Dorian as they were preparing to move out.

With reluctance, Brassemer psyched himself up as Carmelita issued the order for them to follow."I'm gonna regret this…"

"Be thankful," Fujikawa said. "Least it is not as how the New Year's celebration was."

Brassemer cringed behind his riot mask. "Yeah…there was that. Did I really tell Locke I loved him when I was tanked?" Fujikawa turned back to look to his partner.

"Yes, then you kissed him, if what Cornelia said was true ."

"Cornelia's a habitual liar…if I see that crap on facebook, Hideki…I swear there's gonna be some office based 'weapon malfunctions' going on."

* * *

It wasn't until the crushing blackness and strangling silence of the solitary chambers did everyone begin to feel as if their hearts climbed up their throats. The thick, inky blackness cast a deep sheet of isolation, heavy as lead along everyone's shoulders. Brining the night vision goggles helped, but the grainy lime green imaging did little to unsettle their nerves as most of the hall that wasn't directly in front of them was still cast in darkness. Brassemer was at the back, walking backwards as the group's eyes for their rear. Carmelita, at the front, held her hands tighter against the grip of her weapon to steady the white knuckle tension.

Most of the doors were opened. The heavy steel bolted barriers barely dented from the blast. Dorian craned his neck slightly as he looked through an open door they passed on his left. Seeing the chamber completely empty gave him a fleeting feeling of hope that he and the others were the only ones down here in the dark. Returning his gaze past Carmelita's shoulders, he heard a crunch as his boot stepped on a small chunk of cement that had been on the floor, possibly from the blast, or perhaps a piece of the ceiling that had come loose.

Resuming their methodic sweep through the reinforced hallway. Hideki let out a small sigh to himself as he stepped closely behind Booker. Passing one of the doors that remained closed, he noticed the lock and handle on the door had been sliced off, some of the metal warped and bubbled, possibly from a torch. Craning his neck over the ocelot's shoulders in front of him, the tanuki peered through the small eye hole slat in the door. He saw nothing out of the ordinary in the small box like cell, until his eyes landed on a dark blot in the middle of the room.

Squinting through his goggle's lenses, the raccoon-dog looked closer so his goggles could bring a little more clarity to the dark outline. His slanted eyes grew large immediately as his breath was sucked away. The shadowy object moved. It moved as if it were alive. Hideki broke formation as he leveled his MP5 towards the door and threw his back against the wall. Brassemer stiffened and followed his partner's movements as Fox and Booker turned around.

"It…it…" Hideki trembled as he broke in and out of speaking in his native language.

"Whoa, whoa. Fuji! What's spooking you?" Brassemer looked at the door, then back to Hideki. The tanuki nodded towards the door as he remained staring at it, burning a hole through that eye slot with his gaze.

"There…something moved. It looked like a man." Everyone turned toward the door Hideki was looking at. Dorian pressed his back against the wall adjacent to the door as Carmelita came up from the other side. Unlocking the door, the fox held the handle before taking a deep breath.

Twisting he handle, she flew open the door as Dorian swung around to cover her as she pulled up her weapon. They moved about, Brassemer using his light to scan the small chamber. There was nothing inside out of the ordinary, the only evidence that someone was in here not too long ago was seeing that the toilet paper holder was empty. "Fujikawa…it's empty." Carmelita turned back and stepped towards the tanuki.

"But…" he stuttered slightly as he stood up. "I swore, I saw someone in there!"

"Everyone," Brassemer quipped. "Keep your voices down...do you hear that?" Everyone's ears moved as they attempted to catch the sound Brassemer spoke of. The fluttering of some alien sound came from farther down the hall, but they strained to listen. It grew, a little louder and more urgent. It came from low near the ground level of the Interpol officers. "It sounds like…scratching?"

Everyone brought their guns to bare, creating a tight covering formation around everyone as they heard the scratching growing louder. It sounded like it was coming from under the floor, a thousand tiny little skittering feet as it grew closer, coming straight at them from the hallway. The night vision goggles displayed nothing but darkness in front of them, but the clawing and the scratching was growing almost deafening to them. Bringing their guns up, their hearts beating as they waited for the inevitable swarm of whatever was making that horrid noise to bare down upon them. There was still nothing in front of them, yet the scratching and screeching seemed to throw out millions of hands from deep within to claw at their ears, strangling any other sound or thought.

The sound was right on top of them, yet there was nothing. Nothing was seen moving, as the team held their position, unable to fathom what was happening. As soon as they felt the crushing noise all around them, surrounding and cutting off their retreat, it vanished. Instantly, like a calmed storm, it was gone. The team of officers were left with their racing thoughts and the oppressing silence once more.

"What…was that?" Carmelita's hands shook along with the sights of her MP5 as her eyes darted back and forth. She froze her gaze to the left as she saw a flicker of movement low on the ground. A long thin appendage was wriggling about out of a small hole in the wall, at their boot level on the ground. She pointed quietly to the small moving object and Brassemer shined is light on it. Their eyes widened as they saw the length of a man's arm sticking out of a hole in the wall.

It grasped blindly at the ground as it was moving stones, pieces of the wall that it was plucking out in order to make the hole bigger. As the light shone on the bony arm, the long unclipped claws raked across the ground until it dropped the stone it was grasping. As if it had eyes of its own, the hand slowly moved towards the group of officers and simply held still. Everyone was rigid as stone, confused and afraid of this alien sight. Brassemer held his light on the hand at all times.

Finally, after what seemed like ten minutes of pure silence, the hand flattened itself out, and in a snake like fashion, the length of the arm slithered back into the hole. "Jesus Christ," Dorian breathed. "They're inside the walls!"


	35. Pray

_**Author's note: **__I'm not going to get too sappy on everyone here, but life's been hard. But I decided to dedicate what time I do have to finishing this story. If you readers are still out there, this is for you. Sorry it took so long._

_On a side note. I have another new story in the works that I intend to start after the end of this story first and once I get farther into Last True Shinobi. Stay tuned! _

_Angelos D Wolf._

* * *

**Chapter 35**

**Pray**

* * *

**"N**o sudden movements." Inspector Carmelita Fox began to slowly step back towards the entrance to maximum security. "We turn around, and we move out of here. We get out of here now!" She spoke in circles as her nerves became shot. Brassemer, in the very back kept his shoulder mounted light trained on the hole in the wall where they first saw the inmate's grasping hands. The sickly, pale and bony fingers with long curling, unclipped claws that slithered back into the wall made everyone's fur spring up on the back of their necks as they all collectively inched farther away.

A sudden pop was heard far along the hallway lined with heavy steel doors. A shatter confirmed a light bulb must have fallen out of a lamp socket on the ceiling. Not that it added to any more to the crushing darkness than was already present. One flickering light still hung from the ceiling, far on the other side. With a flash of light, quick as lightening, Carmelita strained to focus as she noticed a strange faint shadow. It seemed to be slowly swinging back and forth, moving slightly with every flicker of the light fixture. "Brassemer," the vixen spoke, causing everyone to go rigid for a moment.

"Constable, shine your light down the hallway, towards the outer wall." The collie nodded as he turned around and adjusted his shoulder lamp to bare down on the strange smudge.

"Oh my God…" Dorian spoke, dropping the MP5 from his shoulder slightly. Brassemer quivered slightly, the light mounted on his shoulder wiggling about along with his body.

"Well..." Fujiwaka spoke. "We found our team…"

The light scanned over the bodies of four badly beaten corpses that were once Interpol officers. Namely, the four other missing officers that accompanied Fujikawa and Brassemer when the riots first broke out. They were hanging by their CB radio cords wrapped repeatedly around their necks. "We need to cut them down," Dorian spoke. "This is just…no one deserves to die this way…"

Everyone's ears twitched as they all turned back from the second wing. A chorus of heavy breathing reverberating off the concrete walls was flooding Carmelita's ears, she couldn't hear herself think. "They're coming back," Fujikawa stated sharply as his ears flickered. "Hear that?"

Everyone lifted their heads and quieted their gasping breaths. It sounds much like boards slapping together, or metal rods wobbling back and forth. It was a strange, alien sound. Almost as if the walls were shuddering and moving around them. "Is it…another explosion set off by Coal's men?" Booker whispered to himself as he walked and patted Carmelita on the shoulder.

As the shuddering began to die down, a sudden feeling of dread filled the claustrophobic nightmare of the isolated hallways. Heavy breathing, but a quick inspection showed that not any of the Interpol agents were breathing next to her. Instead they were silenced, the air caught in their lungs and remained frozen in there. The breathing became sharper and faster, bouncing off the narrow walls as more strange noises came down the hallway to accompany it. What could only be described as the pained moans of some injured ungodly animal echoed down to hit the four agents with its deep, penetrating rumble.

Each officer could hear their hearts beating within their chests. Louder and louder. The sounds grew closer. The thumping became its own musical instrument, much like the jagged scratching of a fiddle in a horror movie as suspense began to build. _Thump, thump. _Louder still did the noises come towards them.

_Thump thump…_

Carmelita couldn't tell if her own heart was making the noise, or the unholy choir shuffling towards them were.

_Thump thump..._

"Brassemer," Carmelita spoke in a hushed tone over her shoulder. The collie shook himself out of his stupor and looked to the vixen. "Shine your light…down the hall." The dog took a few steps forward, standing next to Fujikawa and adjusted his light to lace through the darkness of the hallway. Everyone's jaws became slack as they saw what stared back at them from the abyss.

A dozen pale faces and shiny glowing eyes that reflected the light from Brassemer's shoulder lamp stared hungrily at the four enforcers, with many more bodies behind them craning their necks to stare at them over the taller inmates' shoulders. And as quickly as they saw the eyes, the lamp on Brassemer's shoulder fluttered weakly.

And then the light was snuffed out.

"Oh great..." Brassemer breathed.

_Thump…thump…_

* * *

Sly Cooper watched the screen of Coal Black's laptop, the whole thing being corrupted and under the control of Bentley's spirited fingers as the tortoise continued breaking down barriers and firewalls, digging up file after file. Sly scanned the screen as intensely as Bentley was, seeing schematics for Clockwerk's final designs scrawling across the display. His eyes narrowed at the sight of the menacing bird that to this day haunted him. It wasn't until Bentley paused in his search when he brought up what looked like very old photographs. What interested them most was that they seemed to be ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics etched into the old stone surfaces. Sly's eyes grew as he saw the display on the wall as that of a giant bird, an owl with very sharp metallic looking features.

"No…" he breathed. "Is…that Clockwerk?" Bentley nodded, though the raccoon could not see it.

"From what these files indicate, these must be the very first representations of Clockwerk ever in history. It's possible Coal's organization is older than we initially believed and has been following Clockwerk's progression for some time now."

"Could…could Coal's order be some plot to destroy the Cooper line? My earliest ancestor was Slytunkhamen II, an Egyptian Pharaoh and builder of the Cooper Vault. He stole from nobles, I'll bet anything he made himself a bunch of enemies during his career." Bentley scanned through more in the computer, looking up more data on the organization.

"It's possible, Sly. We've had quite a list of extraordinary individuals wanting to take us out over the years. I'd say your family line has been a thorn in the sides of many different barons, nobles, pharaohs, lords and whatever else history has thrown at them. I'm guessing it's all finally catching up to us." Cooper sighed though clenched teeth as he looked away from the computer for a moment.

He bit down on his thumb in thought before adjusting his blue hat. "Alright Bentley," he said with resolve. "We're taking all that data and erasing it for good. No trace of it can remain. Nothing. We're gonna scrub history clean of that stupid owl."

"I'm on it. Currently I'm corrupting any of the data files so Coal won't be able to do a system restore and regain everything he lost. After that, it'll be blown away for good. I'd incinerate the laptop along with anything else connected to the schematics."

Cooper nodded and twirled his cane between his fingers for a moment. "Alright, pal. Tell me when you're finished and I'll deal with the laptop." The raccoon reached for the door to exit the office and cautiously stepped out. Bentley glanced up at the security monitors and noticed his friend was on the move again.

"Sly, hold on. Where are you going?" The master thief furrowed his brows and shook his head as he let out a breath.

"There's one more loose end I need to tie up before anything." He brought his fingers to his radio earpiece to make sure everyone on the frequency could hear him. Gold, Blue, Crimson, 13, Tom, Murray, Penelope, and Bentley all listened in as they heard his voice over the mic.

"I'm going after Coal."

Tom was quick to cut in.

"On your own? Like hell you are! Coal's not natural, we agreed to take him down as a team!"

"If anyone deserves to kill him," 13 interjected. "It will be me. I've nothing left to lose, that gives me the edge here. He's a manipulative psychopath, he'll use anything he can against you, even your own thoughts if he can!" His normal, robotic and calm voice began to waver as he grew more irate.

"He's ours," both Blue and Crimson snapped. "He left us for dead! We were dragged through hell under his boot, it's time we give him a little taste!" Blue clenched his fist to accentuate his point, yet Sly could not see it. Tom came over the mic once more.

"Mr. Cooper, the situation is shaky at best. We cannot afford to go gallivanting and jeopardize the plan. We lie in wait for him and take him down together. It's the only way!"

"Tom," Gold's voice came over the mic as sharp as a tack. "Do you have a visual on Coal right now? If so, I say we take him now. We've got him by the balls, would we have any better of a time to make him squirm, or what?" The disguised jackal let out a hiss from his nostrils and drew away from suspicious eyes. As he whispered into his earpiece, he ducked behind a corner and cupped a paw to his ear.

"None of you have any prior experience with Coal personally. I know his capabilities, if he wants to kill you, he will. This is not up for debate!" He looked over his shoulder, then continued speaking. "No, Pyrite. He isn't nearly vulnerable enough for us to take him down. Not when we're scattered around too thin like this."

"This is bullshit," Gold snapped. "I'm tired of plugging away at these grunts. I'm cutting off the head of the beast right freakin' now!"

"Gold no!" Tom spoke after the youth, but the cheetah had already cut off his connection to their frequency. Indigo Blue gave a shake of his head and chuckled.

"Stupid punk. Ran too fast for me to even grab him before he went out the door." Scarlet came up beside him and touched his arm.

"Tom," her smooth voice came over the mic. "Where is Coal now?"

"Don't tell me you two are going after him as well?" The red vixen nodded out of habit even though the jackal couldn't see her.

"We might as well. Everyone will either be searching for him on his own, or we can all meet up and confront him together. We've enough support. I say we take our chances." Blue looked to his lover by his side.

"You're sure about this sweetheart?" His brows drew up worriedly and she rubbed his forearm in assurance.

"As sure as you're buying me an engagement ring when this mess is all over. Now we best move, darling. We've never kept Coal waiting, I'd say it's time for retribution." The malamute's tongue was caught in his throat for a moment until he pulled the red fox into his arms and they shared a quick kiss. Murray rolled his eyes from behind his glasses and turned away as he started down the hallway.

"Aw jeez…let's hurry up before these two start having kids. Bentley, we're ready to go buddy!" The tortoise clicked furiously on the keyboard as Penelope adjusted her glasses and scanned the many camera monitors and heat signatures for signs of movement from Coal.

"I got em'", she chirped. "Second story….5th block. He's heading south! You all get that?" Everyone listening in had their fingers to their ears as they all heard the message loud and clear.

"He's heading for Clockwerk..." Sly mused to himself. He picked up his cane and began a mad dash to the factory level. "Bentley, keep working on those files. If you see anything about my ancestors, save em and burn the rest of Clockwerk and the organization."

"Be careful, Sly. Be careful all of you! Who knows what Coal's able to do! We all gotta be on our game for this one."

"Master Turtle," Tom's voice came in. "You have no idea." The jackal stood up and began to dust off the ashes coating his fur as he withdrew his Glock from the holster in his coat. "We're going to be in for quite the roundabout."

* * *

The prison was mostly silent, the ruined building had light pouring from the large cracks and holes punched through the concrete walls. It looked as if the roof would cave in at a moment's notice. Coal's explosives surly did their job as all of Paris was thrown into chaos while madmen in orange suits rampaged across the city. most of the cells were empty, some blown completely open while others had no walls left, leaving the inmates to simply crawl out of their newly formed exits and begin sewing torment. Inside the prison all was still, save for one towering individual. Flipping through a page in the small bible he held in his hands, the chestnut colored beaver still sitting on his cot chewed his bottom lip absent mindedly.

Glancing up, he looked at the clock on the wall that was still barely functional, and with a deep sigh, the giant of a man stood up from his bed. Throwing the holy book onto his pillow, he thumped his flat tail and knelt down to reach under his bunk. _"It is good to see you again. I'm glad to see you still kept in shape." _The beaver blinked heavily as he heard the recent memories replaying in his head.

_"Coal sends a message." The beaver, still rocked from the large scale explosion that shuddered around the entire prison stood there, looking at the black clad agent of Coal's organization. With the small striking bird insignia on his coat, the large beaver was filled with a case of slight nostalgia from seeing the uniform. _

_"What does he want?" His voice was booming, he glanced behind himself as he saw the rest of the inmates swarming over the prison guards and strangling them, taking them down with sheer force of numbers. "Has he not realized I voluntarily chose to remain incarcerated all these years?" _

_"His message states…well. I think you can read it for yourself." The black furred dog knelt down as he dropped the backpack he had strapped to him and placed a very large briefcase onto the floor, kicking it towards the beaver. "He said to give up on that old book. There's no room for it in his new world. Just do what you've always done best." The large man knelt down, flicking open the locks and slowly opening the case. Inside, the smooth curved surface of a fully stocked M32 MGL grenade launcher rested comfortably in its foam setting. _

_The beaver let out a long sigh as he brought the large multi-chambered launcher up to his chest, as if embracing it. Looking back up from under his brows at the agent of Coal's, the large man drew in a breath and nodded. "There's some clothing and equipment in there as well, I'm sure you're eager to get back into business." _

_The beaver gave a stern look down back at the suitcase and furrowed his brows in thought. Coming to stand back up from his knees, he held the grenade launcher with one arm to see its weight and balance, familiarizing himself with the weapon. He looked back to the black dog. "Who is the hit?" The agent pulled a small photo out of his coat and handed it to the beaver. The brown animal took it and held it into the light pouring from the large missing chunk of his cell's wall._

_After looking at the photo, he glanced back down at the grenade launched and ran his hands along it. "What is she? Government?" _

_"Interpol, a very skilled officer whose death is important to the final stages of our operation. I trust you can handle it?" The beaver sighed and returned to sitting on his half destroyed bunk. _

_"If you contacted me, then either Coal's run out of options, or you really must want to make sure she is dead." _

_"A bit of both it seems..." the canine trailed off as he handed a cell phone to the beaver. "Contact us once you confirm her death. Then we'll work on your record with the police." _

_"Erasing a file won't erase memories of what happened. You've been with Black long enough, you know the situation." The dog nodded as he began to set another explosive charge he retrieved from his backpack for the next bombing run. _

_"You're not a man, you're a weapon, Duncan. The moment you get that through your big head, the smarter and sounder you'll be for it. We're all cogs to a machine." _

_"That's a cynical look on things, I'd pray for you if it-_

_"Spare me," the black dog absent mindedly spoke as he continued fiddling with the explosive settings. "I've no use for prayers." _

_"We're not like machines," Duncan said after a short pause. "People can't live that way, we're not ageless metal. We will die some day, don't you feel less fulfilled with a soul so unprepared for God's graces?"_

_"You have your orders, Duncan." The dog finished arming the device and left the trigger on standby. "Kill her, quickly, and call the number on speed dial when you've confirmed her dead." He didn't wait for the beaver to respond. Merely, the dog turned his back as he held the bomb under his arm and shouldered his backpack, leaving the destroyed prison, and Duncan's unheard prayers. _

The beaver sighed as he pulled out the large suitcase that held his equipment. Flipping it open, he took out the foam insert and grenade launcher. Underneath was a folded flak jacket and a pair of combat boots. Replacing his clothing, Duncan strapped on the jacket that was littered with pockets, a loaded 9mm handgun in the built in holster. Checking all of the other pockets, he returned to his main weapon of choice, opening up the cylinder and loading each concussive shell.

Attaching the second hand grip and the adjustable AUG scope to the rail system, he stood up and fastened his boots. He then glanced back at the bible he placed on his pillow for a long silent moment, seeing the gilded cross printed on its surface and the rigid spine that said "King James Version XVII" He picked it up, feeling the weight in his hand and pressed the hard cover to his forehead. "Forgive me for what I'm about to do."

* * *

_Thump thump…_

The screaming rattled their ears. The hymns of hell seemed to nip at their heels. Brassemer in the back held his MP5 to his shoulder as he unloaded into the mob of screaming emaciated ghouls, the rubber bullets blasting a few of the short ones back, while the larger ones were far too strung out on opiates to even feel a thing. Carmelita pumped her legs, the blood rushing to her face, making it unbearably hot as a thick coating of sweat collected under her helmet and stuck to her fur. Dorian switched places with Brassemer as the collie signaled that he needed to reload. The group staggered slightly as thin, pale arms began to burst from the walls.

One hand nearly grasped the hem of Fox's jacket as she leaned away from the needle like fingers. Laughing and cursing and maddening hackles followed the four officers as they made an insane dash to the staircase exit. "Fuji!" Brassemer patted the tanuki on the shoulder. "You got any more flashbangs?"

The raccoon dog patted down his vest until his paw brushed against a familiar shape strapped to his chest. He unhooked the metal cylinder from the grenade loop and pulled the pin. "No one look behind you!" He quickly turned around and threw it at the mob of grasping hands. The grenade smacked against an inmate's chest, causing him to stagger as he caught the object. Pausing to inspect it for a second, he was hit full force with the deafening screech and blinding light of the flash bang grenade as more of their group groaned and staggered from the incredibly distracting noise and light.

"UP! UP THE STAIRS NOW!" Carmelita held the steel reinforced door open as she ushered for everyone to evacuate. Bracing her back against the door to hold it open, she shouldered her MP5 and sprayed into the mass of tangled grasping arms. As she saw the last of her comrades leave, she slammed the door behind her and engaged the security lock. The steel bars shot out and slid into the hole on the side of doorway.

She could hear hands clawing from the other side of the thick metal door as she leaned against it to catch her breath. Dorian leaned against his knees as he took long gulps of air, blinking away the sweat that collected around his eyes. He looked up at Carmelita and offered her a hand off the floor. "Well," the ocelot gasped. "Least they're locked in there. Won't be...running in the streets."

Brassemer kicked the wall hard, causing the animals to look up. "Dammit, they got all of them. Phillips, Himmins. They got them all! They're just hanging in there and we had to leave em'!" Fujikawa placed a hand on his partner's shoulder.

"When it's over. We'll get them back. I promise." Brassemer sighed and stood up as he nodded. Bringing his firearm up, everyone looked to Inspector Fox for orders. The vixen noticed a few tears in her uniform to make note of, then breathed sharply out of her nose.

"Alright. We're done here. We lost four good officers down there, but the situation hasn't changed." She spoke with authority and sternness as she addressed them. "Paris is still overrun. I'm sure the national guard are already on the scene, but with so many inmates and the threat of civilian casualties, they'll have their hands full. We move topside now, meet up at one of the blockades they'll be setting up and do what we can."

"Yes, ma'am," Brassemer spoke, disheartened still from the sight of his coworkers' corpses. Leaving the hallway which lead to maximum security, Fujikawa locked the barred doors behind him out of slight paranoia that someone could be following. As the four continued back to where the entrance was, Inspector Fox couldn't help but notice a few things were out of place. The bodies of the men who attacked them were missing. She noticed their blood stains on the floor and a few drag marks.

She held up a hand, signaling everyone to stop. She drew two fingers out and pointed towards the blood stains. "They're…gone?" Booker quirked a brow as he glanced about.

"Well they didn't just get up and walk away…" Brassemer sighed. "I plugged one of them four times in the chest point blank."

"Everyone keep your eyes and ears open. Brassemer, you cover the rear." Carmelita drew a glance over her shoulder as they advanced, the sounds of their boots squeaking against the floor. They came to the end of the hall just before the library and saw that the door was open. This caused Carmelita's tail to flicker slightly and puff out as she grew more uneasy of the situation. "This doesn't seem right at all," she uttered under her breath.

Tightening her grip, she took a step forward until she felt a slight tug against her foot. She looked down and her eyes grew wide. She quickly threw up her hand to halt her fellow officers. "Wait, stop!" She quickly snapped and then carefully drew her foot back.

Carmelita knelt down to make out what was near the floor. Dorian came behind her and squatted down near her. "What is it?" Carmelita slowly lifter her hand and underneath it, hovering so delicately as a spider's web was an almost invisible wire. Dorian was able to see it as it contrasted with Carmelita's dark black glove.

"No one move," Dorian stood up and turned to Fujikawa and Brassemer. The collie glanced around, confused.

"Are we being watched?" Dorian glanced around again nervously as he was able to spot more wires lacing around them.

"There's trip wires all over this place…we don't see what they're rigged to, but don't make any movements. There could be some farther down this hallway." The other two officers looked around as they were able to see a slight glint of light coming off the transparent wires.

"Shit…" Brassemer spoke as he looked to his partner and jerked his head back towards the end of the hallway they just came.

"We'll have to turn around and find another way," Carmelita stood up and looked away from the wires. "Whoever rigged these is a professional. Most likely one of Black's men."

"Black?" Fujikawa craned his head to the side in puzzlement. Carmelita shook her head and gave a sigh.

"It's a long story. If we live through this, you can read the after action report." Dorian moved closer to Carmelita and moved his mouth to her ear.

"You think Coal found us here? How would he know we would be here?" The vixen bit her lip in thought, then whispered back as the group turned around.

"He staged this whole mass riot. He knew we wouldn't be able to contain everything, not this quickly. This prison was one of the worst ones hit and the highest concentration for inmates." She popped a few stiff vertebrae in her neck and rubbed her shoulder. "He calculated everything to a fault. But…he knew the inmates still in here wouldn't take us all down. If he drew us out here in the open without the support of Sly and the team to back us up…who was meant to take us out?"

As they rounded the corner to the other wing of the building, Fujikawa and Brassemer froze, causing Dorian and Carmelita to bump into them. They looked up over their shoulders to see more wires blocking their path. "They're luring us," Carmelita spoke. "They're herding us into an area for an ambush I assume."

Dorian looked to his partner and patted the two officers on the shoulder in front of him. "We'll double back and look for any holes in the wall." Carmelita shook her head.

"That won't work. He's already got the exits blocked off." The three other officers looked to her with puzzlement.

"What?" Brassemer blurted out. "How? We've only gone through maybe half the prison. What if a piece of the walling broke off while we were looking for our team?" Carmelita swallowed hard as she raised her chin to gesture down the hallway.

"Because the man who rigged all these traps is here, right now." Everyone glanced to the end of the hallway. After a short pause, the silhouette of a large, burly man stood in the doorway, behind the spider web of tripwires that separated him from the group of Interpol agents on the other side. "Coal sent you I take it?"

There was no response other than the man flicking the arming cap of what looked like a remote detonator with his thumb. "These traps are good, but you've not only caught us, but you as well. How are you going to get any closer to us than that?" The man continued flicking the cap lid on the button, but remained silent. "This stage you built for us is too small. You won't be able to maneuver at all, and we have automatic weapons. For one of Coal's men, you didn't plan this all very well."

"You didn't take one thing into account though, Miss Fox." His booming voice echoed down the hallway, causing Carmelita's brows to raise as she heard her name. She watched as the slightest movement of the other arm that wasn't holding the detonator held a very large weapon. Placing the detonator into his jacket, he drew up the large grenade launcher into the double hand grip and raised it to his shoulders.

"I don't have to reach you, my eight little friends here will do it for me…unless…you surrender?" The sudden offer took Carmelita by slight surprise, but she didn't show it. An assassin offering mercy to their target was an odd thing indeed.

"I surrender? Then you blow this whole place and let us be buried? How tempting." The large man shook his head and stepped out of view of the four officers. They all pressed their back to one another, covering all angles of the area they were forced into from the wires. A slow fall of footsteps signaled their attention to the end of the hallway to the left of them.

A pair of booted feet walked out into view, along with all of seven feet of a large brown furred beaver, the large M32 gripped in his hands. He flexed his jaw slightly as he looked over his targets. "Surrender, and I'll let you live. But you'll be coming with me." They brought their weapons up as the beaver drew up his launcher.

"Think we'll just quit while we're ahead? There's four of us, and only one of you." Dorian shot back a defiant glare to the brown animal.

"I was ordered to take you out if need be. I can arrange that since you keep asking for it." He took a step to the left, keeping his sights on Carmelita especially. "All the exits are rigged with tripwires connected to a series of highly combustible explosives."

"And let me guess," Brassemer spoke up behind Dorian. "You're blocking the only exit out of here."

"Guess that makes you on a tight leash, dog." Carmelita shifted her weight onto her right leg as she leaned in a bit more, lining up her sights toward his uncovered head.

"Guess we'll be going through you then, you overgrown pond rat." The beaver furrowed his brows and took a step back.

"Then I guess you chose. Fine." A sudden click, and he hurled a grenade at them with the strength of a major league pitcher. Everyone scattered as they saw the explosive leave his pocket, trying to stay as far from the explosion as possible without running into any of the trap systems. "I am Duncan Brown," the beaver said as he adjusted the sights on his grenade launcher, resting his back against the concrete wall. "And I don't plan on leaving any bodies."

* * *

Sly rushed madly, his legs pumping as he dashed through the office building. He noticed a guard on the other side of the door he was about to open, through the window. Jumping off the floor, he threw his legs out and kicked the door open with such force, the swinging door slammed into the guard and caused him to spin around as the edge caught his jaw. As he was forced back into the other guards behind him, Sly quickly sprang up and brought his cane down, knocking the others unconscious before they could even get back on their feet. Vaulting down the staircase, he slid down on the railing to increase his speed, using his cane to hook onto the adjacent railings to turn himself around as the stairs continued to spiral downwards.

As he burst through the doors towards the factory area, he noticed the balcony above him that were lined with guards, all with leveled SMG's at their hips. "There he is! Rip him apart!" As the animals above him let loose with the hail of fire, Sly focused on the door in front of him as the speed of the bullets began to suddenly decrease, so much that Sly could follow their traces through the air. His thief reflexes kicking in, Sly leapt forward and tucked into a roll, using his hands to spring off the floor as he twisted in the air, narrowly missing the hail of bullets.

The cursing of the guards above him sounded hallowed and thunderous as the effects of slowing time around him made their words drawn out and lower pitched. Dashing and weaving through the lacing lights of the bullets whizzing past his nose, the smell of gunpowder was almost overpowering. Kicking down the door, time reverted back to its original pace as the guards cursed and reloaded their weapons, moving off the scaffolding to get to another area of the factory district. "Cooper's in the factory, he's going after the project. All units, converge around the bird!"

Bentley heard the radio chatter of the guards as they all clambered about themselves, reporting the movements of Sly, but they were all scrambled before they could reach any of the other guards thanks to the turtle's signal jammers. Cooper saw the tarps that lined Clockwerk's frame. He was so close, he could almost see the shadow of the giant mechanical avian behind the thin sheets. Then something caught his eye. A black smudge from his peripheral vision, and suddenly his jaw was met with the outstretched open palm of a lightning quick assailant. The raccoon was flung back and landed in a pile of oil drums.

Groaning, he touched his throbbing jaw and attempted to stand up. A tall, lean well dressed figure cloaked in shadow loomed over where Clockwerk was resting. "Enjoy your poultry victories?" The dark voice was smooth as syrup, yet held a lingering waver of psychosis. "You know Mr. Cooper, I don't know whether to kill you or bow to your cunning and wit. I must say of all the gallant "white-knights" who thought they could end my organizations, you're the one who's given me the most stress."

The master thief coughed as he stood up, still jarred from the incredibly hard palm of Coal Black's strike. He opened and rolled his jaw slightly, checking to see if it had been dislocated. "Black…" he breathed. "How long have you been dogging my family's heels? How many Coopers did you kill with that stupid bird?" Coal's shaded face could not be seen, but his head tilting to the side slightly gave indication that he heard the raccoon's words.

"Me? It's always been him." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder towards the slumbering mechanical behemoth behind him. "See we've kept tabs on Clockwerk for some time, however with his brain becoming more and more machine as the ravages of time began to rot it, he became unstable. He went rogue. No longer did he share our vision of our future in this organization, he was hell bent on erasing the Cooper line from the history books. You did us quite the favor of finally putting him to rest all those years ago in Paris. Now we can start over anew without him interfering. We built him better, smarter, and most importantly, he's fully controllable."

Cooper gritted his teeth as he boiled with a primal rage. Coal continued. "I won't do the cliché villain route of telling you everything about my plans. I have a schedule to keep," he said as he glanced at his wrist watch. "And I plan to keep it. But I will tell you this, you've no place in my new world, nor any thief or criminal. But for getting this far, I have a present for you." Reaching into his dress vest, Black withdrew a large, gold plated Desert Eagle custom pistol and fired rapidly towards the raccoon. Sly, thinking in a split second, activated his thief reflexes and narrowly dodged the bullets.

Ducking his head, one bullet passed through his cap, pulling it off his head. Cooper twisted in the air and landed, tossing his cane like a baton at Coal who side stepped out of the way of it. Bringing his hand up, the shadowed figure landed his sights back onto the raccoon. A quick burst of gunfire from above them caused Sly to glance up and see Tom with his Glock 18 pointed at Coal, the barrel smoking slightly. The jackal squinted down the sights as his gun shook in his paws.

Coal glanced down, seeing four new holes in his vest, then looked back up at Tom and gave a soft, deep chuckle. Cooper's eyes grew wide as he saw the shots had no effect on the dark man as Tom fired once more. Black dodged and jerked his body around as he sidestepped every shot, faster than any normal man could react, and then leapt backwards an incredible distance, landing atop of Clockwerk's metal head. "This game is far from over." Coal reached into his pocket and withdrew a large rectangular object.

"The hate chip…!" Tom aimed his firearm at the object in Coal's hand, switching his Glock to automatic fire. As it sprayed bullets towards him, Coal dodged most of the shots, one stray bullet clipping his shoulder. As he recoiled slightly from the shot, he brought his desert eagle up to bare on Tom as he shot out the locks holding up the scaffolding the jackal was standing on. Tom leapt off the ledge, landing hard with a grunt into the pile of oil drums.

Sly ran over to Tom to help him out of the pile. Looking back up with Coal perched atop of Clockwerk, the dark man drew open a panel in Clockwerk's head, seeing the large CPU that acted as a sophisticated brain for the bird. Pulling back a lid, Coal held the hate chip in his hand and jammed it into the slot. A surge of power erupted as the humming of the bird's internal parts reverberated off the walls as he began to activate. With an ear splitting shriek, the bird roared to life as its sharp metallic beak parted and let out another screech, it's orange eyes opening with a bright, burning fury.

Cooper looked up in complete horror to the sound, failing to even reach for his hat that rested next to his foot until it blew away from the air rushing through the whole factory as Clockwerk began to slowly ascend. He could see as Coal stood atop of the metal bid before throwing open a hatch in the machine's main body and dove inside. As the large bird began to turn, the scream of the jet turbines causing the glass panes to shudder slightly, Clockwerk raised his large razor sharp legs and began pushing up on the concrete ceiling, causing cracks to lace out of the surface until it gave way to the robotic monstrosity. As it ascended further up the levels, destroying floor after floor as it searched for the sky, Blue, Crimson, Gold, 13, and Murray rushed through the hallway, looking up with their mouths agape. "Aw, man! We're too late!"

Murray threw a fist into his other palm and stomped his foot. Gold cursed and threw up his middle finger to the large bird and yelled out Coal's name. Blue and Crimson embraced one another as they shielded themselves from the dust of the concrete crumbling above them. 13, the black fox glanced up as he knelt down to help Cooper and Tom up from the floor, handing the raccoon his hat. Sly took it with a nod in thanks and dusted it off as he reached for his cane. They all looked up, seeing the bird break through the entire building and it began to soar away into the sky. The master thief's heart sank as all he could do was watch. Clockwerk has been reborn again.


	36. Reckoning

Chapter 36

Reckoning

* * *

** A **sharp ringing rattled through the space. Light and dark flashed in and out, like a door opening and closing. The world was like water, formless and unable to be grasped. It was like the feeling of falling and drowning in the spinning mass; then she came to.

Carmelita snapped open her eyes, adjusting as the first thing she noticed was her cracked face shield. As the ringing stopped, she was roughly picked up off the floor by an unseen hand and tossed behind a wall. Dorian sat down next to her, his back pressed against the wall. He reloaded his MP5 as he gasped for breath. "Boss, you OK?" Carmelita sat up stiffly as she patted herself down.

She had trouble catching her breath as she touched a few tears in her padded vest, finding bits of shrapnel embedded inside the kevlar plating. The ringing subsided and she rubbed her soiled visor with her gloved paw. Flipping it up, she felt less claustrophobic with it blocking her face, giving her room to breathe. Remembering Dorian asking her a question, she glanced at him and quickly nodded. Dorian sighed as he checked his ammunition.

The fight had been going on for what felt like hours. Every time any of the officers attempted to move to a better position, Brown would lob out another grenade or fire a concussive round near them. He had them pinned down, his reaction time and aim were incredibly trained. "This guy doesn't mess around," Booker stated as he took out his clip and shook small bits of dirt out of his MP5 before replacing the clip. Carmelita looked to the other end of the hallway, seeing Brassemer and Fujikawa attempting to flank Brown.

Another explosion rocked the prison walls as Brown shot another concussive shell at the officers. Expelling the empty casing from the cylinder ammunition chamber, the large beaver slapped in more shells as he threw another grenade and dashed away. Brassemer and Fujikawa dove away from the first blast, Fujikawa dazed from the initial shock. As Brassemer dusted himself off, he heard the sound of the next grenade and quickly grabbed the back of his partner's vest, and tossed him away from the grenade. The collie leapt away as quickly as he could, but the blast from the grenade tore into his back as the force pushed him forward.

The back of his vest charred and eviscerated, the officer tumbled a few times until he made a stop, lying motionless on the floor. Small trails of smoke wafted from his back as Fujikawa crawled over to the body of his partner and attempted to pull him out from the open. Patting down his smoldering back, Fujikawa checked his partner's vest to see its integrity from the blast. "Brassemer! Partner wake up!" Flipping the canine over, the tanuki examined the collie's black and white spotted face.

"Brass!" He flipped up the man's face shield and touched his muzzle. Bringing a finger to hover just over his dark black nose, Fujikawa could feel a very shallow breath of air fluttering against the small hairs on his finger. He glanced back up at Dorian and Carmelita. "He's alive, but he needs medical help!" Carmelita nodded as she stood up, her back against the wall as she brought up her MP5 to bare. Pressing it to her chest, she glanced to Fujikawa once more.

"We need to get him out of here. Dorian," The ocelot lifted his head at the sound of his name. "Brown's explosives. If we can get our hands on them, we can blast a hole in the wall and make an escape route. The feline quirked his brows in puzzlement.

"The hall's too narrow! The explosions would funnel right into where we're standing at that range!" Carmelita glanced over the corner of her cover and then quickly retreated.

"The end of the hall where Duncan is. He had to leave one of the hallways free of any tripwires, otherwise he wouldn't be able to get to us. We need to get through him and blast a quick hole out of here. There should be enough room." The vixen bit her lip and chewed slightly, assessing the situation longer.

"There can't be an escape for you!" The bellowing voice from over the other side of the hallway caused the animal's ears to perk at attention. "Even now, Coal's plans are coming to fruition! And when it's his time to sow the seeds of his vision, there will be no room in it for any of you heathens!"

"Heathens…" Fox spoke aside. "Who talks like that? Great, not just a maniac with explosives, but a preacher too." Dorian thumbed the safety off of his sub-machine gun.

"Maybe we can use his faith, try and talk himself down from this. The whole 'thou shall not kill,' thing?" A sharp "thunk" sound, and another explosion rocked the prison's foundation. The animals dove for cover, dust caking their uniforms as Carmelita rose off the floor and glanced at the ocelot. "Or…maybe reasoning is out of the question."

* * *

Sly Cooper simply watched. He watched as the enemy that haunted his family line and cut down their tree right down to every last root flew off into the sky. The giant metal bird tore a swath through the clouds above, and left an ear shaking screech for the rest of those on land to savor and fear. The animals groaned and clutched their ears to the painful echo from the beast's throat. The raccoon watched unflinching however as the very cause of him being an orphan and having nothing but the faded memories of his parents to remember them of when they were still alive; he simply watched it fly away into the sky. He sighed once more, for what had to be the tenth time. _Maybe we're fated to having to fight each other for the rest of our lives, _he thought to himself.

_Maybe I was meant to be the last Cooper. To spend my youth fighting this bird to the ends of the Earth._ "Cooper," the voice sounded far away, yet so close at the same time. "SLY!" Again the voice came, booming through the fog in his mind as the raccoon finally came out of his stupor, being violently shaken by the shoulder. The raccoon turned to see Tom shouting at him. "We need to leave, Sly! Coal's men are coming down on us!"

Cooper merely stared at the jackal for a moment, dumbstruck and unable to respond, his mind was a spiraling storm of thought. A shot whistled past his ear, causing him to duck and quickly dash away with Tom and the rest of the animals gathered nearby. It felt like decades he had been fighting that bird, trying as hard as he could to halt him from being created once more. The bird was like a cancer, how it just festered and grew and that it wouldn't go away as it just sapped away at everything until it was satisfied. Sly thought back to Coal, when he hit him, how hard it felt, how unnatural his speed and reflexes were.

The dark man was able to shrug off four bullets to the chest and laugh at them. Sly raised his head and looked up at Tom, the golden jackal's back to Sly as the group continued sprinting out of the factory, automatic machine-gun fire lacing after them. "Down the hallway! We left it clear!" Indigo Blue shouted as he pointed towards a nearby door.

Murray didn't even stop, he threw his shoulder forward and the door was torn from its hinges. The large hippo made an audible grunt, but the adrenaline from being shot at kept his body from dwelling on the pain for too long. They sprinted as fast as they could, everything just seemed like a dream. Dancing lights laced past them as loud explosions rattled behind them. It was all so vivid and obnoxious, yet it somehow gave them clarity as the only thought on their minds were to continue forward, to get away to safety.

Bentley wheeled his chair as fast as he could, Penelope pushing him hard and latching on as the momentum helped carry them forward on his wheels. The turtle looked to his digital readouts of the compound as he looked for a quick exit. "There," his nasally voice rang out, trying to speak over the rage of gunfire behind them. "Take a right and we should reach the stairs that'll take us to the parking area!" They collectively ran down the fork in the hallway, sprinting back up the spiraling flight of stairs.

Murray stood back as he left everyone else pass him up the stairs, then hoisted Bentley over his head, chair and all in order for the turtle to make it up. The group of animals continued up the stairs, reaching towards the upper levels as they heard the clatter of more footsteps coming behind them, loud curses were thrown at their backs as the odd shot or two would slap against the metal of the stairs at them, making a symphony of _twangs_ to follow them up to the parking area. Gold got to the door first, throwing his leg out to open the door, but it barely nudged, causing the cheetah to tackle it and push it open as quickly as he could. The rest of the group got behind him and pushed outward as the heavy door gave way.

As everyone got outside, Murray set Bentley down and quickly slammed the door shut, bracing it with his arms. Tom, Indigo, Sly and Gold pushed against the door as well when they heard the guardsmen on the other side.

With their combined strength, and the narrow stairway, the guards weren't able to make the door even budge. The four animals on the other side of the metal barrier heard the sound of gunfire smacking against the door, causing slight dents, but otherwise no outside damage. The gunfire stopped and loud shouting was heard faintly from the other side. Indigo began to laugh out loud. "The fools! Hah! Their gunfire's ricocheting back at them!"

"Careful," Tom grunted. "They might try ramming the door open, or use explosives."

"Not likely, old timer." Gold shifted his weight and kicked the door a few times. "This is reinforced. I saw how thick the door was when I tried kicking it up. The shit was heavy enough where we all had to push out to open it in time. They're not getting through this." Hearing the guards disperse, the men all gave a collective sigh and eased their force on the door. Indigo withdrew his collapsible nightstick and wedged the door shut with it.

"Um guys," Bentley turned his head back toward his shoulder a bit. The rest of the animals at the door turned around as Bentley raised his hands above his head. Six men, all dressed in black coats and holding Uzis at their hips pointed towards the group, greeting them. Sly narrowed his gaze at the small box shaped guns pointed at him, and then back up to the guards. The raccoon looked to Indigo, the malamute beginning to raise his hands over his head.

Sly cleared his throat, getting the dog's attention. Blue glanced at the raccoon who also had his hands raised, the raccoon staring intensely at the black and white dog. Blue narrowed his gaze at him in thought, and noticed Cooper making very subtle hand gestures, jerking his fingers toward the dog's hip. Tom was looking out of the corner of his eye, his head turned to his right shoulder as he noted the silent conversation the two animals were having. He quickly turned back to face forward as he heard the guards. "Everyone drop your weapons, and then keep your hands on your head." The guard barked his orders, stepping ahead of the others assembled behind him.

Sly noted the icon on his lapel. He must have been higher ranked, differentiating between him and the other guards. His dark black face markings reminded the raccoon of Coal, and the thought of their earlier engagement came back to the front of his mind. He clenched his jaw in anger as the guards began to disarm their friends. Cooper glanced back to Blue, the dog seeing the raccoon move out of his peripheral vision .

Cooper did the same gesture to Indigo as he did prior. Blue had noticed on his left hip was another one of his grenades filled with his nerve gas. The dog subtly took note of it as he remained rigid in his expression, not giving any insight to the guards what the two were planning. Cooper nodded to the dog, Indigo seeing a hint of opportunity. Cooper then waited as the guards came to him.

"Your stick," one of them said in French, a Doberman. "Drop it now." The raccoon looked at his cane held above his head, gripping it tighter. The guard leveled his Uzi to point right between Cooper's eyes. "Drop it…now." The raccoon felt a drop of sweat sliding slowly down his cheek. He nodded to the guard and began to lower his arm. Glancing for a fraction of a second to Blue, the malamute looked to the guard pointing at Sly and tensed his body, rigid as stone.

Cooper closed his eyes, the world slowed around him as he spun the cane around in his hand, slamming the end of the shaft onto the ground. A small click, and thick smoke hissed out of the end of the cane. Ducking quickly, the raccoon jumped away. All in a slow pace, Sly soared through the air as he lunged, tackling Bentley and Penelope standing close by, sending them to the floor. He was able to see every reaction to their faces as he glanced up to see Scarlet turning around, Tom grabbing her and Gold with his arms outstretched and flooring them as well. 13 and Murray ran out of the way, scattering in opposite directions as their movement became shielded by the growing cloud of smoke.

Time crawled as Blue pulled the pin from the grenade, the small metal piece twirling in the air slowly as it drifted down like a feather. He drew his arm back, and as time began to revert to its normal pace, the malamute uttered, "Hold your breath." Tossing the canister into the thick of where the guards were standing prior, Blue then dived to the floor with the rest of the animals. A few shots rang out, sailing past them and in the confusion, there was a sudden cascade of maddened screaming. Everyone had their heads down, their eyes closed and prayed the smoke hid them well enough.

Shots rang out, people yelling hysterically and howls of agony echoing through the parking structure. Everyone held their breath, cradling themselves on the cold concrete floor. The suspense was agonizing, the stress unimaginable on their minds as they feared to even take a breath of air and simply huddled on the ground together. As the shouting and shooting continued, one person in particular howled madly as he expended all the bullets in his clip in the matter of a few seconds. More shots rang out.

And then everything was silent. Cooper perked up his ears, not hearing anything as he held Penelope and Bentley under his arms. He felt them shift their bodies uncomfortably under him and he eased his weight off of their smaller frames. Opening his eyes, he glanced around, feeling slightly lightheaded from still holding his breath. Blue was looking around, glancing at Cooper. The dog shook his head and signaled with his hands not to breathe yet. As the cloud mixed with the noxious miasma of Blue's grenade began to fade, the malamute stood up and drew in a breath.

Scarlet pushed Tom off her as she was mentally counting when it was safe to breathe again, her knowing more than anyone else besides Blue himself of how his gas grenades worked. "It's alright, everyone. You can breathe now." As Blue spoke, the whole group collectively exhaled at last. Bentley coughed and gave a sneeze.

"Guh, remind me to work on my lung strength after this. Is everyone -

"Oh my god…" Everyone turned to look at the assortment of black clad bodies in the middle of the parkway. The guards, in their confusion had ripped themselves apart, blood pooling around the cascade of corpses that littered the floor.

"Blue…what the hell?!" Sly's voice echoed all across the parking structure as he stared daggers towards the malamute. "They're massacred. What was in that grenade?!" The dog huffed and drew out a cigarette.

"You're the one who told me to throw it, you troglodyte. Why are you bitching at me?" He began to light his smoke as he looked at the bodies on the floor. "I guess they were scared as to what they saw. They must have mistaken their own men for threats in their warped minds and gunned each other down in the smoke." Sly's brows came together in a solid grimace as he jabbed a finger at Blue.

"We weren't supposed to kill them, just incapacitate them while we escaped! What the hell happened? We cleared out the guards here the same way and they didn't rip each other apart!" The dog sighed out a geyser of smoke, glancing up to see Murray and 13 coming back from their cover behind a support pillar.

"People can react differently to the toxin. Couple that with being caught in smoke with no where to look and having a fully loaded gun in their hands, what the hell did you expect, you fool? If you didn't want them dead, you should have taken that into consideration! I thought you more clever than that, Cooper."

The raccoon was disarmed, he couldn't think of anything to rebuttal with. He analyzed the situation, Blue was right in the raccoon's eyes. It was his call that caused these people to die. Their blood was on the thief's hands. Was it there was no other way? There had to be, all his life he had never resorted to taking another living person's life. He always viewed it as there was always another way to that.

Cooper took a step back, his body shook slightly as he felt the tingle of shock coming over him. Penelope helped Bentley back into his wheelchair and touched Cooper on the shoulder. "Sly, it's ok. They were going to kill us. They wanted to disarm us, but I could see it in their eyes, they weren't planning on taking us back alive. They were going to execute us after they were sure we couldn't react. Sly, your call saved us all." Cooper shivered as he felt the mouse touch his shoulder.

He looked down at his hands, the blue gloves soiled with dirt and oil and all manner of things. He shook his head and cleared the fog from his mind. Regret would have to wait. He then began rebuilding his thoughts as he turned and walked past the group and gestured to Tom. The jackal glanced up, straightening his coat collar. "Tom..." the raccoon began.

"Coal…he…What is he?" The jackal made a noticeable flinch in the expression on his face, belying his calm demeanor. "I saw you shoot him in the chest four times. He didn't even feel pain. He hit me in the jaw so hard it felt like a jackhammer. He jumped so high into the air and his arm didn't even flinch as he fired his desert eagle at us, with just one hand."

The group all looked to Tom, the sandy haired jackal darting his gaze around slightly before turning back to Sly. The raccoon continued. "I understand now why you wanted us to all wait and attack Coal together. He's…not normal, is he?" Tom drew his bottom lip into his teeth and chewed lightly.

"No, he is not. Mr. Cooper, you've dealt with plenty in the supernatural world, this shouldn't come as a surprise to you. Let's just think of him as gifted. For all we know, he could have been wearing kevlar."

"Your deflecting the question, Tom." Scarlet stepped forward, crossing her arms and standing in a way that broadcasted hostility in her body language. "Spill it. We've been too lenient with you." There was a long pause, the group began to make a small semi-circle around Tom.

"Since you won't say…" Sly spoke "…Coal's…master plan. Do you have any idea how he wants to achieve it? What it is, and why he wanted to make a new Clockwerk?" Everyone had their eyes trained on Tom for what he was going to answer. Penelope and Bentley soon joined the rest of the group around the jackal, the small mouse girl replacing a few of her belongings into a backpack strapped to the back of Bentley's wheelchair.

Tom sighed as he looked up at the ceiling, Indigo puffing on the cigarette in his lips. The cheetah Gold, noticed Blue, and gestured if he could bum a smoke from the dog. Finally, the jackal spoke, and surprisingly abruptly. "Coal is going to Kane Island."

* * *

The forceful tremor caught them off guard. Knocking their already weak legs to the floor, all the animals, including Duncan as well rested on their hands and knees as it seemed the world itself was about to shake apart. Accompanying this was an ear splitting screech. Covering her sensitive ears that still rang from the previous grenade from Brown, Carmelita let out a pained shout. Dorian cursed and clutched his ears. Fujikawa dropped his partner's limp form as he was compelled to grab his ears to block out the horrid noise.

As quickly as the sound came, sharp and erratic as a rusty nail dragging against a chalkboard, it vanished, leaving the lingering echo of the otherworldly scream to rattle in their eardrums. "What…was that?" Booker stood up as he grabbed his gun and assisted Carmelita. She drew up a paw in protest as she was able to stand on her own.

"If that's what I think it is. We need to get back to Sly and the others now!" As if to answer her question, a grenade _tinked _down the hallway. Dorian quickly grabbed the back of Carmelita's vest and yanked her away from the grenade with all his strength. Landing on her tail, Carmelita grunted as she stood back up, the blast of the grenade only sent a ripple in the air from the force of the explosion, but she was otherwise unharmed.

"We need to get close to him," she mused mostly to herself. Glancing to Fujikawa who leaned over the corner to see what Brown was up to, Fox looked over her shoulder to Booker. "We'll need a distraction. Any ideas?" The ocelot flattened his ears under his helmet in thought, then the idea came to. Taking off his helmet, he inspected it for a moment before placing it on the barrel of his MP5.

"I'll be right back," the ocelot said, and as turned around and made his way to one of the wired off hallways. Facing the spider web of tripwires all connected to the incendiary grenades, the feline held his breath, threw his helmet out towards the lines and then quickly sprinted away. As the wires bent to catch the plated helmet that was tossed into its open embrace, a few metallic clicks reverberated off the walls as many pins cascaded down the floor like water drops. A sudden burst and in a chain reaction from the heat triggered all the other white phosphorous grenades to ignite, sending a tornado of flames to spiral down the hallway. Dorian dove, feeling the heat nipping at the back of his neck.

Rolling out of the way, he placed his back to the outer wall where the hallway ended as the flames began to dissipate, unable to find anything to burn in its concrete tomb. Booker took in a new breath, the smell of burnt hair filled his nostrils as he felt the back of his neck. A few of the singed hairs had small whitish tips on them that flaked off into ashes as he ran his hands over them. "I opened us a new route," he breathed to Carmelita. The vixen nodded as she whistled to Fujikawa.

"Get Brassemer over here, I got you covered!" The tanuki nodded and shouldered his unconscious partner, raising up onto his feet. With a glance down the hallway, he heard Carmelita signal for him to move and the tanuki sprinted as quickly as he could with the dead weight on his body. Inspector Fox leaned out of cover right as she saw Brown raise up his grenade launcher and began to spray bullets in his general direction. The desired effect, he retreated back to cover, and Fujikawa rested his friend down against the scorched concrete wall of the hallway.

Carmelita held her firearm by the shoulder strap and knelt down to inspect Brassemer. Opening his face mask, she took her glove off and opened one of his eyes. She clicked her fingers together a few times, and observed his pupils a moment. Taking his helmet off, he instructed Fujikawa if he had any cranial bleeding or other injuries as she walked over to Booker. "We have a way to flank him now, but he still has ammunition. I'm not risking us getting in too close and this whack-job decides to go Taliban on us."

Booker nodded and drew up his gun. "If we go in for the flank, we'll need to distract him long enough to not be able to toss more grenades. If we keep him pinned down, maybe we can flush him out." Carmelita looked to Fujikawa down on the floor, then back down the hallways as she crept over to the edge of the wall. Looking out, she didn't see Brown, but he was most likely hiding behind cover much as they were.

"He's still too entrenched in there, and we don't know how much more ammunition he has. He could be setting more traps for us right now too." The fox bit her lip. "Damn…"

"What if two of us keep him pinned down while another sneaks up on him?" Booker glanced down as Fujikawa spoke, standing up from his partner's form. He turned to Carmelita. "He has a minor concussion from what I see. He's starting to become more awake, but we need to get him to a hospital." The Asian man then nodded down the hallway. "If we keep Brown's focus on us, someone can get behind him and take him out."

Carmelita analyzed the situation more, inspecting the length of the hallway as she quietly walked down their length and looked at which direction it was heading. As she expected, there were more tripwires to be seen that blocked most of the routes, except the ones Brown used himself in order to move around. She quirked a brow in thought, then returned to the other animals. "There's a few halls we can use to flank him. If we lay down suppressive fire, it could be possible to sneak up on him if he doesn't plan on moving around too much." They grew quiet.

"So," Booker said. "Who's gonna be the one to do it?"

"I'll go," Fujikawa spoke up. "I'm smaller, he won't see me coming." Carmelita folded her arms and glanced down at Brassemer. The collie was breathing loudly, but otherwise seemed stable.

"I've not much ammunition left, and we'll need someone to get Brassemer out of here when this is all over." She ejected her clip and looked to see how many bullets she had left. Glancing back at Fujikawa, she looked him up and down. "And no offence Fujikawa, but if that guy gets the chance, he'll be able to pick you up and throw you through a wall without any trouble." Booker looked up at Carmelita then and snapped his fingers.

"Carm, you were able to take down thugs like Mugshot, right? I read in your reports in Prague, you took him down and were still able to pursue Cooper. The man was twice your size and three times your weight and you took him down with a few kicks and a shock pistol. If anyone can beat this beaver down, it's you." The fox glanced ahead, then sighed.

She looked back to Dorian, then Fujikawa. Finally, she nodded. "I'll go," as she stood up. "Fujikawa, get Brassemer out of here. We'll keep Brown busy while you two get away. Dorian." She turned to the feline who stood up as well. "Give me a distraction."

He gave a swift nod and pressed his shoulder to the wall. The fox withdrew the 9mm strapped to her thigh and switched off the safety. The small ridges on the handle bit into her gloved pads of her hands. Heat rushed to her face as sweat condensed at her brow just under her riot helmet. "Inspector," she heard a call from over her shoulder. Fujikawa, as he shouldered his friend's limp body, he reached down to his waist.

"If he gets close." He unsheathed a carbon steel knife from his waist, flipped it in his hand and offered it handle first to her. Carmelita took the black knife and inspected it a moment. Nodding to Fujikawa, she turned to Dorian as she felt the stiff grip of the knife in her other hand.

"On three." Dorian drew his firearm up to his shoulder. The adrenaline pumping into Carmelita's body made her fingers twitch. She could hear her own heartbeat, rattling through her head, up her throat and pounding against her ears. She closed her eyes, taking a few breathes that sounded as loud as a crashing tsunami wave. She barely heard Dorian slowly counting down the numbers.

Exhaling, he slowly opened her eyes, her gloves stretching as she gripped the knife and pistol in her hands.

"…Three!"

* * *

The abruptness of his answer caused a few people to raise their brows. Bentley's lips wavered as he began to speak.

"W-wait, Kane Island? But it sank when we…Clockwerk…" Sly turned to the turtle.

"What is it, Bentley?"

"That's…just the theory but…well the schematics showed certain modifications to Clockwerk's design. Coal was able to jump inside of Clockwerk and steer him as if he were a fighter jet. With his large size, reinforced plates, his sleeker design, plus the adjustable talons on his legs and the adaptable propulsion system…" Bentley trailed off in thought for a moment, but Cooper already knew what his friend was going to say.

"Clockwerk's going to Kane Island and dredge the ocean for the Cooper Vault…" the raccoon then quickly turned to Tom. "How do you know this? How do you know about the vault, or Kane Island? Or…any of this?! Who the hell are you?" Tom drew his hands up defensively.

"Our organization has tabs on your family, Sly. We've gathered this information over a long period of time, well before you were born. But after the death of your father were we obligated to get far more involved than we originally wanted. Sly, the sort of wealth your lineage created, it's enough to remake the world. Exactly what Coal plans to do with it.

"We could not have an entire family running around with that sort of power unchecked." Cooper's hands shook as the grip on his cane tightened, and he turned his back to Tom before he did something he would regret. "We dug up more info on Coal's databases stating his interest in the vault your ancestors created. That's the moment we knew what he was planning to do. We originally were here to protect Inspector Fox, the woman that helped you defeat Clockwerk twice and finish him once and for all. She is…was the key to all of this, your success against Clockwerk was because of her."

Cooper looked to the side, remembering the sight of dropping the hate chip on the ground, and Carmelita stomping it into dust on the Paris streets. It felt like a lifetime ago when that happened, yet he remembered it like yesterday, those handful of years ago. Tom continued as Sly's memory faded. "Sly, with Clockwerk operational again, we need to regroup and get you to Kane Island. Only a Cooper's Kane can open the vault door, right?"

Sly shook his head. "It's already open…" he sighed in disdain. "I never closed it when I opened it after the scuffle with Dr. M. I was…just in such a hurry to see the inside of it. I never closed it. And then as we were retreating from the Island's collapse, the vault caved in and sank into the ocean, but it was still open."

Cooper gritted his teeth and cursed as he whacked his cane against a wall in frustration. "Dammit!" He felt almost on the verge of tears as he was fighting to choke down his anger. The thought of getting everything of his family that was lost to him, only for it to be turned around and used to fuel Coal's madness made Sly sick to his stomach. He stood up straight as he sighed.

"Bentley. Do you still have the map and layouts of Kane Island?" The turtle glanced up from thought as he motioned for Penelope to hand him his laptop. Opening the computer, he thumbed through a few files until he brought up the plans he had replicated himself.

"Right here, Sly. Judging from the mass of the vault and the patterns of ocean currents in that particular area over four years. It would be safe to assume the vault is close by to where we saw it sink into the ocean...give or take a few thousand leagues under water." The raccoon nodded and turned to the rest of the team.

"Then that's where we're headed." The rest of the group looked amongst themselves. Gold sighed and ground his teeth. Scarlet lifted Blue's arm so it draped around her shoulders as the malamute chewed on the end of his cigarette.

"And how do you propose we get there, captain wow?" Blue waved his hand around in mock grandiose until Scarlet elbowed him in the stomach, causing him to drop his cigarette from between his fingers. Murray gave a loud chuckle from behind everyone.

"Heh, you guys don't know? Sly's like, the richest guy on the planet with what we we're able to pick up from the vault. He could all get us a plane or…a freakin' navy battleship or something to get to Kane Island in a heartbeat!" Sly chuckled as he noticed all eyes were now on him.

"As cool as that would be, I think we should keep things discreet here. Dropping a couple billion dollars on a military battleship might cause suspicion…unless we could find a truck big enough and we can just buy it with the gold and jewels." Bentley typed on his computer for a few moments as everyone was talking.

"Well buying a truck wouldn't be as suspicious as getting a whole ship. But I suggest maybe something a little less...intense." Bentley typed furiously along the keyboard as the animals around him began peering over his shoulder. The turtle sank his head into his shell slightly as he felt everyone hovering over him, but he found what he was looking for quickly. He pointed at the screen.

"That!" He closed his eyes, a look of satisfaction glowing vibrantly over his whole face. Everyone leaned in closer for a good look. Tom was the first to speak up.

"It's a Chinook. Mr. Turtle, you plan on buying one of these?" The reptile nodded, adjusting his glasses.

"The Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter. Perfect for what we need. Plenty of room to transport all of us and our equipment, and fast enough to reach Kane Island in a matter of hours as long as we stay out of air traffic routes." Blue rolled his eyes. "You expect us to waltz over to a military base and flash them enough money and walk away with that behemoth? Do any of you even know how to fly it?"

"We don't" Sly spoke up. "But I know someone who does. Hopefully she's began to contain the riot threat around Paris and we can get her to fly us through the Pacific and get us to the remains of the island." The raccoon folded his arms as he glanced over towards the outside, the residual damage caused from the looters and rioters having subsided in this area of the city. He wondered where exactly Carmelita was at the moment; he worried deeply for her safety and a gnawing anxiety agitated his stomach.

* * *

Her legs burned and flexed as she leapt through the air. The thunder of Dorian's rapid fire spattering against Duncan's cover echoed in her ears. As she sailed through the air, drawing her hand back that clutched the knife, she could see the small movement of Brown's eyes as she shifted to his right. As quickly as he could, he whacked her hand away with the barrel of his grenade launcher. Not fast enough however as the tip drew a line of crimson along his forearm.

Grunting to the sting, he kicked her squarely in the stomach and sent her back a few inches. Flipping back up onto her feet, Carmelita withdrew her pistol and fired without hesitation. Brown dove, tossing a grenade as he retreated. Seeing the small M67 rolling on the floor, she glanced away and rolled back into the hallway where she came from. The shock of the blast sent a tremor through the walls as she drew her firearm up and steadied her aim.

A deep, anger filled growl came from around the corner as Duncan grabbed the small vixen in his powerful arms. Squeezing the tiny orange animal in his arms, Carmelita grunted painfully as she felt her ribs beginning to get pushed beyond their flexibility. Her legs lifted off the floor, she thrashed her leg back and forth until she felt her heel strike something solid. Brown grunted in agony as he crashed to his knee. Carmelita, feeling the pressure loosen, burst from his grip and turned around, quickly sweeping her leg out to connect with the man's jaw. The roundhouse was devastating as the beaver drew back, coughing out droplets of blood.

As Carmelita drew her pistol to bare, Brown clutched the small firearm in his large hand and pointed it away, wrenching it from the fox's tiny hand and following through with a punch, knocking her back and blasting the wind out of her. Croaking like a frog, she painfully drew in air as she staggered to her feet. Duncan, still holding Carmelita's sidearm in his grip sized her up before dismantling the 9mm. Cracking his knuckles, he held his arms up and coaxed her to make a move. Shots rang out, startling them both as Brown took cover again. Dorian, down the length of the hallway emptied the last of his clip as he cursed under his breath, hearing the hollow clicking noise of the submachine gun.

"Shit, shit, shit," he whispered under his breath as he took cover again and pulled out his sidearm. Duncan came around the corner, but Fox was waiting for him. Holding up Fujikawa's knife. The beaver drew up his arms in a boxer's stance. Rushing forward, he threw his arm up to block a swipe from Carmelita. The knife scraped against his forearm, but the brown animal drew the length of his limb forward to cross against the vixen's head, knocking her helmet askew.

Jumping back, she panted from exhaustion and threw her heavy riot helmet to the floor. Her hair spooled about her in a tangled, sweaty mess of dark tendrils. Duncan's cheat heaved, his left arm cried crimson as he tore off his flak jacket and resumed a boxer stance. Carmelita smirked, disregarding the situation she was in. _For being a hired gun, the man knows some honor._

Placing the blade down onto the floor, she tightened her gloved hands and bent her knees. Brown pressed his lips together, and all at once, in a startling display of speed, pounced. The inspector was nearly floored, but she pirouetted away just as Brown's meaty fingers scraped the ends of her tail fur. Leaping into the air, she threw her leg out and caught Duncan in the jaw, but the beaver wrapped his arm around her thigh and used her momentum to slam her into the ground. Landing with a hard thud, Carmelita rolled away from the giant man's booted foot as it nearly crushed her.

Flipping herself up off the floor, her tail swirled behind her, and she sprinted towards him. With his arms out to brace her oncoming onslaught, Duncan gasped as the petite fox slid right between his legs and climbed up his back. With a strong grip, she clamped her forearm around his thick neck and pulled hard with her other arm, locking her to him. He thrashed like a shark tearing at its prey. Growling and snarling as he clawed at her arms around his neck. All the while, Carmelita lifted her legs from his back and kicked him repeatedly in the ribs and the kidneys.

The pain was excruciating, but with his mind focused, the beaver continued to thrash through the agony. "I have had enough OF YOU!" With his roar of outrage, he reached back as far as the swell of his biceps would allow him and grabbed the back of Carmelita's uniform. Prying her off like a life sucking tick from his backside, he held her in his hands off the floor before tossing her into a wall. Throwing up her arm, her wrist and shoulder twisted in a painful direction from the wall's impact, and she landed less than gracefully on the cold concrete floor.

Panting, sweat dripped from her chin as she blinked painfully. She glanced up and saw Duncan coughing as he clutched his sides. Blood dribbled from his mouth as he felt his ribs. The vixen staggered as she stood up, wiping her mouth with the back end of her hand and slowly walked towards the beaver. Finishing his coughing fit, Duncan listlessly raised his head, only for his nose to meet Carmelita's fist.

He flew back, surprised the little woman had such a force in her fist. The fox laughed, and then she too fell flat on her back. The tremors of boots quickly rapping against the concrete reverberated into her ears. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Dorian rushing to her side. "Is he…down?"

Booker looked to the beaver still on the floor as he gently helped the female back to her feet. "Yeah…he's not getting back up for awhile." Resting heavily on her partner's shoulder, the vixen hobbled over to the limp form of Duncan Brown. The beaver's eyes shifted, fluttering weakly as he looked up at the two officers standing above him. "What is Coal's plan?"

She gripped his collar and lifted him off the ground slightly. His lips were stained red as he painfully winced through a blink of his eyes. Carmelita's gaze as cold and deadly as she bore into his eyes. "He," he paused after a cough. "Will never say to me. I'm just a professional doing a job."

The vixen dropped him harshly on the floor. "Bullshit. You're one of his top assassins. He staged all these prison breaks to lure me out and to keep the rest of the entire law enforcement of Paris busy. He planned something big, you will tell me, or you'll be choking on your fat buckteeth." His chuckling echoed through the halls of the bombed out building. He reached slowly in his pocket as he continued to speak.

"He doesn't care about me. He cares little for anything else but his own world." He withdrew a small remote device and with a quick flick of his thumb, pressed a small button under a guard cap. "He's already taken flight. Whether we like it or not…your world will end." A soft beeping chirped down the hallway, getting louder and louder as a sudden barrage of red lights blinked from within the pockets of the discarded flak jacket on the floor. Both officers quickly turned around, but not before Carmelita kicked the side of Duncan's torso in frustration.

"We will find him, you sick bastard!" Duncan simply laughed on the floor as he watched them hobble away. "Saves him the trouble of finding you…" he chuckled as he craned his neck towards the beeping flak jacket and the strings of wires connected to the explosives strapped to the walls. "There shall be a reckoning…Carmelita Fox." In an instant, a tidal wave of fire and shrapnel erupted, engulfing everything in the blink of an eye.

Dorian and Carmelita hobbled down the halls together as they felt the explosion rock the interior of the prison. Glancing back, the vixen's eyes grew as she saw the glow of flames begin to intensify. "Quick!" She grit her teeth through the pain in her limbs and they continued to madly dash towards the closest window or wall they could jump out of. The corridor of concrete stretched on for ages, all the while, the two animals could feel the heat begin to lick at the back of their uniforms.

Finally, a bombed out window presented itself to them. Dorian vaulted Carmelita up to the windowsill, pushing her up over the lip and quickly tried to climb up with his arms. The vixen used her uninjured arm to grab Dorian's hand and pulled up him with all her might. The white phosphorous flames engulfed his booted feet as the two spilled out of the window. Landing hard on the ground outside, a large gush of heat flew out of each wall, hole, and window of the building. What areas were left had small flames cling to them, a soft flutter of ash and sparks rained down on the two officers as a group of squad cars and fire engines raced up to the building.

Firefighters spilled forth, rolling out the hoses and racing to the prison. "Get the fires out before the spread to the lawns!" A pair of EMT's escorted the two soot covered Interpol agents to an ambulance. Carmelita batted their hands away as she stood up straighter, wiping her eyes from the ashes around her cheeks.

"I'm fine, relax. The building is lost." She continued to give her report to another officer as Dorian turned around, looking down the end of the freeways of Paris. The city was in chaos. Road blocks and the National Guard vehicles zoomed down the sidewalks. Helicopters and News vehicles added to the tornado noise and commotion.

"…and that ear piercing screech a few hours ago. Did anyone see what was happening outside?" Dorian's ears flicked toward the vixen as she continued speaking. The officer she was speaking to began to respond.

"Lieutenant Lebou reported a few moments after that happened, Inspector." The officer flipped through his notepad as he continued speaking to Carmelita. "Said he witnessed a UFO the side of…Christ, nothing short of a sport zeppelin at least." The vixen leaned in closer.

"Sergeant, did he get a look at the shape of this object?" The officer flipped through his notepad a few pages and stopped as he drew the pencil from behind his ear.

"He did. Said it mimicked the silhouette of a very large bird of prey. Huge wingspan and a compact looking body." Carmelita looked back from the officer and stared directly at Dorian over her shoulder. Booker overheard their conversation and took off his riot helmet with a sigh, rubbing his tired eyes.

"We need to find that bird…"


End file.
